January Recipe RoundUp

One of my 2014 goals is to be more adventurous in my cooking, so I've challenged myself to try one new recipe a week. Doesn't sound like a lot right?

Maybe not, but coming home after a long day the thought of cracking open the cook book or pulling something off the interwebs and HOPING it turns out well is not exactly the ideal evening for me these days.

Will it actually only take thirty minutes? 

Does it secretly require six hours of prep? 

Will this really be the best pork roast of my life?

Is this a Pinterest fail in the making?

There's still a cheesecake brownie incident I am trying to live down....

But in spite of some hesitations, I stuck to it and attempted some altogether delightful recipes this month.

To kick the month off, I made a Mexican Braised Beef in the slow cooker for our new year's goals party. This was a combination of my Mom's recipe advice and a solid recipe from The Kitchn. Follow her recipe, it'll surely be awesome. Or take my mom's advice and sub out the diced tomatoes for stewed tomatoes and create something MAGICAL. 

Mexican Braised Beef with roasted cauliflower and kale

Next up, I took some solid advice from PaleOMG and made her Almost Five Ingredient Spaghetti Pie. This was really, really good. Like really good. Like go make this right now. I added mushrooms, parsnips and extra sauce to mine because I can't leave anything alone.

Courtesy of PaleOMG (hers is prettier looking than mine)

I have to say this was almost a fail.  I fell victim to not reading the recipe all the way through first.... I'd assembled this delicious casserole, looked at the next step "Bake at 400 for about an hour." So, my own fault, but dinner was at 9 that night. Worth it.

Tonight, the Village Gardens Cooking Group starts up again and I'm preparing two new recipes. The first, a play on my favorite salad: kale, blood orange and avocado salad with a blood orange vinaigrette. I'm a big fan of raw kale salads and I'm excited to try out a new vinaigrette to mix things up! Hopefully my participants will be equally jazzed about the ease and awesomeness of making homemade salad dressing.

September's Cooking Group hard at work

We are also making a roasted jalapeno and bacon winter squash soup. Sounds tasty right? I hope so! The Food Works farm provided us with some beautiful delicata, acorn and pumpkin squash that we will roast to perfection for our soup! Love sourcing local produce!


My new recipe challenge continues and thanks to my lovely soon-to-be-sister-in-law, I am the proud new owner of Beyond Bacon: Paleo Recipes that Respect the Whole Hog. This book is brilliant and the recipe photos are just absolutely gorgeous. Go check it out! Your eyes and stomach will thank me.

Easter candy

The Easter Bunny didn't make a conventional visit to the hodge house this year. The bunny is respecting that we are cutting back on sugar intake and instead of bringing treats, the bunny brought a beautiful sunny day (and allowed us to make a car payment and buy a bed) oh to be grown ups.

I cooked a ham for the first time ever and it turned out fabulously. The Domestic Man shared a fabulous honey and citrus ham glaze recipe that left my house smelling amazing and tummies full and happy.

After dinner, we were left wanting something sweet.... I mean... its easter where are my robin's eggs, jelly beans, chocolate rabbit??? I've been focusing on eliminating that way of thinking, associating food with emotion or eating something because its tradition. I like to make concious decisions of what I consume.

But I consciously decidedly that I wanted some effing chocolate.

Instead of rummaging through the treat door for some packaged, crap filled...crap... I decided to make my own crap candy. I like to know what I'm eating.

Thus chocolate sunbutter stars were born

Ingredients

1/4 cup coconut oil melted
1/4 cup coconut oil, solid
1/2 cup unsweetened dutch cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsweetened sunbutter (I use homemade--its infintely cheaper than store bought)
1/4 cup (or less) honey


In a food processor, combine solid coconut oil, cocoa powder, sunbutter, and honey. Blend until smooth and even. Pour in melted coconut oil and stir just to combine. Don't overmix or it may separate.

Spoon mixture into silicone candy mold. I got mine at ikea, though I'm fairly certain it was intended as a disfunctional ice cube tray. You can also spoon into mini muffin liners.

Place in freezer for about ten minutes or until firm, then carefully pop out of mold. Store in fridge or freezer.

Enjoy!

ch-ch-ch-chili!

That glorious chill of late fall is finally here.

My neighbor relentlessly sweeps brown, green, and red leafy intruders falling from the massive oak as they build a crunchy carpet over our shared backyard. His work is never ending, and seemingly pointless, the tree has only begun to shed. So I guiltlessly, stomp my feet through the autumnal piles as I clamor up to my tiny attic apartment.

I precariously balance my overly full grocery bags on the rail as I fumble for my keys. Door clicks and I barely open it and am tackled by two wiggling balls of fur.  My bags rip and soon enough onions, sweet potatoes and and carrots are rolling around my kitchen floor.

overwhelmed by love. I can't actually stay mad. 

My two little furry sous chefs inspect the produce rolling about the floor and are decidedly uninterested. 

Just as soon as they are overly excited, they are crawling back into their respective snoozy spots to sleep.

sigh. animals. 

To celebrate this delightful fall weather, I have decided that I  NEED to make chili. I saw PaleoGirl's recipe for Bison and Sweet Potato chili and I was admittedly intrigued. But I am broke broke, so  grass fed bison is just not in the books. But I take her recipe as a starting point and make my own delicious concoction, like I do.

Sweet Potato Kale Chili

So I give you Sweet Potato Kale Chili. 

I just got back from a four day stint in Hollywood where we pretty much ate out everyday. So as you can imagine, I am dying for REAL FOOD, namely dark leafy green. This chili hits the spot. Packed with hot green chilies, ribbons of kale and spicy ground beef, I am a happy camper (and continue to be, because this batch will feed an army for weeks).


Ingredients

• 3lbs grass fed ground beef
• 2 red sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch dice
• 1 tbls coconut oil
• 2 yellow onions
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 8oz organic tomato paste
• 3 tbls cumin
• 2 tbls chili powder
• 2 tsp cayenne
• 15oz can tomato sauce
• 8 oz diced green chilies, hot
• 32 oz crushed tomatoes ( I used some my sister canned, so the seasoning varied)
• 1 bunch kale, cut into thin ribbons
• 1 tsp salt (more to taste)

Brown the beef in a large skillet over medium heat until thoroughly cooked. I use this time to prep all my veggies.
In a large soup pot, melt coconut oil over medium heat. Add diced sweet potato and cook on high for about five minutes, stirring frequently.

Check on yo' bouef. If its done, remove from pan with slotted spoon and set aside. Pour drippings into pot with sweet potatoes. (If its not done... carefully drain some of the drippings into sweet potato pot anyway and continue to cook)

Reduce heat under sweet potatoes, add onions and cover the pot. Let cook until potatoes are fork tender.

Add remaining, garlic, seasonings, and tomato paste. Stir to coat and let cook for one to two minutes. Add in all remaining ingredients, except kale. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Fold in kale, it will wilt and be delicious. Let flavors meld for roughly ten minutes, add seasoning to taste.

Serve with diced avocado and cheese if you go that route. :)

Paleo chocolate meringues

Yesterday was the most delightful blustery fall day. 

Despite some early morning tidying, manfriend and I lazed about the apartment and cuddled with El Pancho and Moe the Dog. 

The cold, rainy days always put me in the mood to fill my house with baked goods (and subsequently, my kitchen with dishes).

Since banishing gluten from my kitchen last January, any attempt to create something that remotely resembles a delicious baked good, has been decidedly disappointing.  Let me tell you--- there is no good replacement for flour in tasty treats like muffins or cakes. Sorry bout it. 

However.  I needed to bake and I needed some chocolate. But I'm in the middle of this pesky challenge, so no cheating! 

I was perusing Dessert Stalker and came across a few meringue cookies recipes. They looked mildly promising, so I pulled together my own little recipe. 

I give chocolate meringue kisses. Totally Paleo, totally only 4 calories a cookie.  

Yes I am that good. 

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tarter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 single serve packets Stevia (I like stevia because its natural, and not scary chemical. If you are of the sugar eating kind, sub a 1/4 cup granulated sugar here)
• 3 tbls unsweetened cocoa powder.

Preheat the oven to 300F and cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In your fabulous KitchenAid mixer, beat on high, the egg whites, cream of tarter, and salt and until the mixture starts to form soft peaks. Add in the stevia or sugar and continue to beat on high, until stiff peaks form. You can tell its ready when you lift the whisk out of the mixture and the meringue doesn't fall. On low, stir in the cocoa powder until fully incorporated. 

Drop tablespoon size drops onto the parchment paper. 

Bake for 24-30 minutes at 300F or until dried out. 

Serve with delicious cocoa :)

cranberry-lemon curd

It's crantastic!

Sweet, tangy and totally vegan.

My friend the suzz and I loooovveee lemon curd. Its true. In our kitchen crafting adventures....  we came across this recipe from Simple Sundays for this BEAUTIFUL cranberry curd. I had to find a vegan recipe for this bright crimson concoction.

There are plenty of vegan lemon curd recipes... but as I scoured the internet I was fairly turned off  by the presence of parsnips or soy creamer or silken tofu. Not that I am unwilling to work with these ingredients,. I've just been burned by such wild ingrediants before. I didnt want an interpertation of curd, I wanted a bright, tangy gelatinous mess of goodness. So I combined several recipes, props especially to vegansaurus; one for the awesome name and two, for the tip about starch.

In as little as 45 minutes ( with 95% of that being downtime...), I concocted a delightful cranberry lemon curd I look forward to using at just about every meal... I even got to use my new fancy shmancy immersion blender I got for Christmas. rockin it.

Cranberry Lemon Curd (Parsnip free)

• 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 4 TBLS Tapioca starch 
• dash salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
• 3 TBLS vegetable oil

Place cranberries and boiling water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring whole mixture to a boil and allow cranberries to pop and cook down (about 10 minutes).

Place mesh strainer over a wide mouthed mixing bowl. Once cranberries and water are liquidy and mushy, remove from heat and pour mixture into the mesh strainer, pushing on the cranberry pulp with a wooden spoon or spatula. Be sure to scrape any puree off the underside of the strainer and into the bowl.

Pour strained cranberry juice into a large measuring glass, you should get roughly 1 1/4 cup  (or a little more) of liquid from the press. Stir in lemon juice. Pour cran lemon mixture back into the original sauce pan    

Add sugar, starch and salt. Using an immersion blender, blend mixture together until completely smooth. Turn heat to medium and bring mixture to a boil. As soon as it boils and thickens, stir in milk and oil until completely incorporated. Remove from heat.

Let curd cool to room temperature then pour into containers  and refrigerate!

gingerbread, made with real gingers.

I loooooove the holidays. Have I mentioned that yet?  I haven't posted in ages because I have been busy at work; chaotically crafting in the living room, dining room, garage kitchen. Thanks to my darling roommate for the support and I can happily report that the craft corner is put away and kitchen fully recovered, for now...

This year was a very DIY Christmas.. from ginger bourbon to almond bark, pretty much everything came out of the kitchen. My neighbors were the lucky recipient of delicious vegan sticky gingerbread. I veganized Nigella Lawson's amazing recipe from NPR, and I am delighted to say that it twas a far classier treat than the previously gifted turkey cookies.

Vegan Gingerbread

• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup dark molasses
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 inch chunk of fresh ginger
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1tsp baking soda
• 2 tbls whole flax seed
• 4 tbls plus 2 tsps warm water
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or whatever unsweetened non-dairy milk floats your boat)
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350F

Lightly grease 2 medium loaf pans.
Combine oil, corn syrup, molasses and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. **Trick! Spray your measuring cup with cooking oil before you measure out the molasses or corn syrup. that way it pours out quickly and easily, no mess!**
Stir to fully combine. Using a microplane, grate ginger into the mixture. Add remaining spices and stir.
Remove from heat.
Using a coffee grinder, grind the flax seed into a delightful spowdery mess. (yes you can just use ground flax to start off with, but the measuring business gets tricky)

In a very small bowl or 1 cup measuring cup mix together the baking soda and ground flax seed. Slowly add water and whisk mixture together until it gets thick and goopy (about a minute).

Pour mixture and almond milk into the saucepan with other ingredients, stir to fully incorporate.

Add flour in 1/2 cup increments, mixing well after each until all flour is used.

Pour into loaf pans and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the loaf is firm, but still sticky on top. (it may seem a little underdone, but it continues to cook in the pan after you remove from the oven.
Let cool for about an hour and then cut into slices, but dont attempt to flip it out of the pan. This bread is sticky, but shockingly not too sweet!

gobble gobble hangover

So much starch.

Ouch.

I had a delightful thanksgiving with the fam. The cooking was more of a group effort this year, because my poor mother, much to her dismay, had major surgery a week before. She begrudgingly handed over the cooking to my sibs, dad and me. 

Our family has some pretty amazing chefs, so dinners are typically delightful. Though apparently we were all inspired by the potato... My aunt made traditional candied sweet potatoes, K/A conjurred up some creamy mashed potatoes, and I threw together mashed spicy, gingered, red garnet yams and apples. Delicious, but needless to say, I am potatoed out. 

My tofurkey turned out the best this year. I really can't follow recipes very well, but whatever I did this year made it way tastier. I updated the tofurkey recipe post to reflect what I might have done... 

But here is a very vegan thanksgiving....

This being the first year, in many moons, I have been home for pie bake.. I went a little crazy and made three.

My awesome nephew Cam acted as my sous chef for pie time. He peeled apples and stirred caramel and did it all with a smile... amazing.


The first is a Curried Macaroon Pie (from Vegan Pie in the Sky), with gingerbread crust. This is the spiciest pie... Cam and I eyeballed the curry measurement and while it is super tasty... I think we accidently doubled it... twoops. Rich, good in very small quantities...

 Traditional Basil Peach Pie. 

I've developed a reputation in my family of taking perfectly normal things and adding all sorts of things so they are less normal. I call it improvement... oh well. The basil is actually a really cool addition to this, not over powering in the slightest, just a nice note.

Apple-Cranberry Galette
Overwhelming favorite of my Dad and baby Jack. 

Traditional, not too sweet and really pretty easy.

festive frosting fail

Frosting has never been my strong suit.
Actually cookies in general... never been my specialty...
I forget key things... like ingrediants or mixing properly, never something so stupid as sugar... twoops...

Tonight my cookies turned out fabulously! (see recipe below) They were my first stab at sugar cookies and I am delighted by their rollability and cuttability (those are technical cookie-master words)

If you haven't picked it up, I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the holiday season. In my extra festive state, I decided to hand cut my cookies into turkeys. These guys are waiting to go into the oven....

 

But it was after this festive frenzy that I let the food coloring and frosting get the best of me.

ORANGE!

Please note the ghetto cookies behind my orange hand. I thought that perhaps if I added more color to these orange and brown frostings disasters, they would be more festive and less frightening... did I mention I was making these to welcome our new neighbors?

Still with an abundance of dough, i tried my hands at letters...

My lovely roommate found my absurd cookies adorable and totally neighbor worthy... still debatable but I presented them with this plate of treats. Or rather I awkwardly left them in the common room with a note that says "heres a ghetto treat..." I am undoubtedly the most awkward, yet cheery person you will encounter...

Made with love...


So happy Turkey day to all.

Oh and if my story scared you off too much, the cookies tasted good, as did the frosting, my presentation is just lacking..

IT'S THE TURKEY FAIRY!

Unbelievable. Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

For the first time since moving to Portland, five years ago, I do not have to work or panic about finding time off. I actually get to drive (thanks dad) to Puyallup (Pew-al-Up) Tuesday night and stay until leftovers are gone and Dad is tired of Moe-the-dog til Saturday.

Truth be told I have the coolest family, so I am absurdly excited to go home for Pie-Bake, Turkey Day and Christmas tree hunting (I want the one by the stick).

This year, as I have for the past two years, I am bringing tofurkey....

Now I don't mess around with that store made, tofurkey dinner in a box. I prefer to do things the more difficult and labor intensive way, and well the box/processed/pre-browned thing freaks me out. (It's like grill marks on the boca burgers, when you know they have NEVER seen a grill).

Though admittedly the process of crafting my own tofurkey is a bit disturbing.

I could, and probably to my siblings wishes, bring a delightful fall dish and scrap the mound of marinated tofu, BUT I am fiercely traditional. Thanksgiving=Turkey. Or since my veg conversion many moons ago: Thanksgiving=Tofurkey.

For those adventurous folk who want to try their hand at making a tofurkey, I've included a recipe below... though I rarely follow it to the T, it really depends on your taste/texture preference.

My recipe is a combination/interpretation of several different tofurkey recipes on VegWeb (which is a fabulous recipe resource). And since I haven't made this for a year... I'll probably post updates after my own 2011 tofurkey adventure.


Tofurkey turkey
(This makes A LOT)
Roast
5 blocks extra firm tofu, pressed and drained
1/4  cup fresh chopped herbs, a combination of savory, rosemary and thyme is delightful
2 tbls vegetable stock powder or vegan chicken stock powder
2 tbls nutritional yeast (nooch)
1 tsp poultry seasoning, or more to taste
2 tsp salt, to taste
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Marinade
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil or sesame oil
2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 tablespoon veg stock powder dissolved in a 1/4 cup of hot water
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbl nutritonal yeast
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Stuffing
(This is just one version, I may try using Isa Chandra's Polenta Stuffing from Appetite for Reduction this year, because it is oh so tasty)
But here is last year's concoction.
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 large yellow onion, minced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsps poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon rosemary
2 teaspoons celery seed
2 tbls soy sauce
2 tbls balsamic vinegar
2 cups vegetable broth

salt and pepper, to taste
4 cups dried stuffing mix (check those ingredients! Most grocery stores sell bags of dried bread cubes for stuffing.I recommend that.)

Directions

Okay, not to scare anyone off, but this is an ordeal. To make your life easier, I would recommend starting the tofu the night before and cooking day of.

Press tofu and drain excess water.
Blend the bricks of tofu in food processor until smooth. You may need to do this in batches.
Transfer to a large bowl, stir in herbs, broth powder, nooch, and seasonings. Taste for salt and pepper.

Line a deep, round bottomed colander with cheese cloth or a VERY clean, non-fuzzy,dish towel. Coffee filters work too, but use the unbleached kind. Otherwise you  may be an idiot like me and cook paper with tofu later its difficult to find them to peel off.

Pour the tofu mixture into the colander and fold cheese cloth over the top. If you are lucky enough to have a plate that fits snuggly in the collander, place that over the tofu mixture. Set colander in a shallow bowl, and put weights (five pound dumbbells work great) on top on the plate to press excess water out.    Put in the fridge and press for at least 3 hours, but I highly recommend overnight for texture issues.

After you feel your tofu bowl is sufficiently pressed, start your stuffing.

Saute the oil, onions, carrots, celery, and pecans in a large skillet over medium-heat for 3-5 minutes. Add mushrooms and a dash of salt and continue to saute until carrots begin to soften. Add garlic, seasonings, soy sauce and vinegar. Mix to incorporate. Your kitchen should smell amazing. Add dried bread cubes and turn heat to low.


Preheat oven to 350F

Now for the fun part....
Remove weights from top of tofu and peel back cheese cloth. Starting two inches in from the edge of the mound- scoop out innards and set aside separate bowl., leaving about an inch at the bottom,  You are creating a cavity for your stuffing! Look at you go!
Fill the cavity with stuffing. Using the tofu you set aside, smear tofu over the top of the stuffing to close the cavity. Fold cheesecloth back over tofurkey, set plate on top and press down firmly.

After pressing and with the tofu still in the colander, scoop out the center, leaving about an inch of tofu around the edges. Place your stuffing in the cavity. Put the tofu mixture you scooped out over the stuffing and press down firmly.
Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet. Flip the tofurkey concoction from the colander onto the cookie sheet (good luck).
You should have a delightful mound. Remove cheese cloth, or coffee filters, again good luck. If there are any cracks just smooth over with a spatula.


In a small bowl, whisk together all marinade ingredients. Taste and adjust to your liking. 

Brush whole tofurkey with marinade and place in preheated over.

Cover with foil and cook for an hour. Remove foil, brush with more marinade and cook for another hour, brushing with marinade every 20 minutes or so.

This thing can really cook for however long you need it too. It really depends on texture preferences. I like to turn my oven up to 400F for the last half hour, so the outside gets crispy. BUT beware, the tofu will crack if you overcook it... (It doesn't really matter, but it looks less appealing)