fromscratch

my v-day dinner

full of love pizza

toppings: love sauce, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, vegan mozzarella cheese and vegan pepperoni.

cupid's arrow breadsticks w love sauce on the side (for dipping)

spaghetti and love sauce (okay i know i cheated and used an old picture..but i forgot to take a picture...looked exactly the same though)

chocolate chip heart cookie (i forgot to get a picture of this last night too...and when i went to snap it this morning...e had already broken it down and put it in tupperware)

i left out the edamame...

we had a wonderful vegan valentine's meal...full of love and good eats. the pizza came out sooooooo good e asked if we could make it every saturday. why not? he "got" me a wonderful pizza stone set which includes all the things to make an authentic pizza...a wooden ladle, pizza cutter, pie server, mincer, grater for parmesan cheese...just a boat load of pizza "stuff"...go get one at linens n' things (19.99) (p.s. he didn't really get it i got it...he just paid for it...wasn't happy at first cause i slipped in a silpat mat...but he said oooh what the heck its your month you can keep it all....now he's happy about it...lol)

i think i will do a pizza post soon...when we make our next pizza (probably in a few days) i got some killer recipes off of allrecipes.com all i had to do was veganize them (if that)....you'll love them and feel like a pizza star like i did.

good eats!

eat good today...

paz,

ki

sugar love cookies!

happy valentine's day!

don't you just love v-day?

i got some sugar cookie love for you today. read about my v-day plans here. and help yourself to some drool worthy cookie sweetness photo viewing while your at it over there.

i thought i'd share a sweet cookie recipe today...in case you'd like to make some cookie love yourself! this cookie recipe comes courtesy of "georgie bowers" at allrecipes.com one of the best recipe resources...period.

of course the recipe has been veganized for your eating pleasure and some other alterations done by me:

vegan sugar cookies

3 3/4 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. vegan margarine, softened
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 "vegan" eggs ( ener-g egg replacer equilavent of 2 eggs)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. coconut extract

directions:
1. mix "eggs" i like to use hot water...and whip them to they are frothy. set aside.
2. cream "butter" and sugar until light and fluffy. they should truly be lighter in color (pale yellow) and have a fluffiness to them. note: if you have a stand mixer set it to cream these ingredients while you sift together the dry ingredients, if you don't, sift the dry ingredients first, than go ahead and cream the "butter" and sugar....in separate bowls (you know that right?)
3. in a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. whisk to blend ingredients well, set aside.
4. once "butter" and sugar is creamed, beat in the "eggs." (i like to add half the eggs, beat well, and then add the other half and beat well) stir in the vanilla and coconut extract.
5. slowly add the sifted ingredients into the sugar mixture until well combined.
6. separate the dough into two disk, wrap in plastic wrap and let "chill" in the fridge. depending on your fridge temp. this could be 30 minutes to 2 hours. my fridge is really cold...so i stick it in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes and then transfer it to the fridge until i'm ready to roll.
7. preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
8. dust your rolling surface with powdered sugar and roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. cut out your shapes and transfer to baking pan. note: i find that i need to let the dough warm a bit before i can work with it really well. i knead bits of it in my hand before i start to roll. as you roll, if you notice the dough cracking apart, just push it together (it'll stick back together) and continue to roll. when the dough reaches the right temp... it shouldn't be too hard to roll...and you won't need much powedred sugar to roll it out. i also run an off-set spatula underneath the dough every few rolls to make sure it is not sicking to the board.
9. bake for 6-8 minutes, until edges are just barely brown. cool on wire racks.

sugar cookie icing, (original recipe by janice brubaker)

1 c. confectioners' sugar
2 tsp. vanilla rice milk
2 tsp. light corn syrup (plus more to thin icing as needed)
1/4 tsp almond extract, or lemon extract
assorted food colorings

directions:
1. in the bowl of a mixer, blend sugar and milk until throughly mixed. add corn syrup, extract and blend at high speed until icing is smooth and shiny. add more corn syrup as needed to thin to correct consistency. (i add it in small/medium sized drops...blend...check consistency with a spoon...until i get a steady flowing stream of the spoon)
2. separate icing into bowls and add food colorings. decorate to your hearts content! (after your cookies a very cool..you don't won't your icing to run all over the place.)

if you would like the original recipes go here for the cookies and here for the icing...have fun decorating!











are you baking yet? get going!!

have a love-filled day!

paz,
ki

vegan sunday dinner

i've been kinda quiet over here. honestly there are two reasons for this:

1. i've been getting busy in the studio lately...and,
2. i've had some not so successful cooking situations lately

and, some of my meals have included fish...for e. and okay i won't lie for me too. i'm not vegan (yet)...i'm just trying to be more veganlike.

let me see if i can recap my diet of the last week....

for our anniversary i made him some "un-fried" fried catfish, cajun rice, and cornbread....
ahh, that's when my current obsession with cornbread started.

then let's, see...on yeah, i tried to veganize a pound cake recipe for the second time, this time adding oreo crumbles to the batter. this failed...again. i really miss pound cake, but i don't really wanna eat eggs, at least not if i don't have to. i guess if i want pound cake without tofu, i'm going to have to eat eggs.

i didn't take a picture of the "cake" just insert a picture of a crumbled up mess. smile. e said it taste good though. i wouldn't let him eat it...on principle. it just didn't look good.

we also had our family favorite as of late, the old standby...breakfast for dinner. i don't know if i was present when the other three members of my family decided that we would have that at least one night a week. i'm not saying that i would of disagreed..i'd just have liked to be present.

and, we had cajun shrimp and rice and of course cornbread...

the other nights...i can't remember...however...

i made a really nice vegan sunday dinner...

we had:

red beans and rice
macaroni and "cheese"
cornbread
edamame (kids)
and a peach cobbler (that was borderline successful)

here are some pictures...

it was sooooo...good!

vegan soul food!

peach cobbler pie

no that's not an oxymoron...you see i've learned that cobbler is a desert where there is fruit on the bottom with a cake/crust like topping baked on top of that. as a child i knew peach cobbler as a pie, with the same thick peach filling inside as a cobbler. so now i'll just call it a peach cobbler pie...lol.

ironic thing is that this looks more like a cobbler than a pie..let me tell you why.

a second ago i said that this was a bit unsuccessful, well...i tried (for the first time) to make my pie crust in my new food processor. let's just say...i won't do that again.

it didn't work for me...i'll stick to doing it by hand.

the processor super processed the ingredients with only half of the water...even though i was pulsing. this made the crust waaay too flaky/crumbly...and the taste was...bland. anyway, when i went to put the top crust on top of the hot filling...it completely and utterly fell apart...a huge crumbled up mess of dough...i just laughed and decided to call it peach cobbler pie...i couldn't get past the taste of the dough, plus me and e were so full from dinner that we didn't save much room for pie...actually i didn't save much room besides a taste...he ate a huge piece...though he said he was full. men?

on another sweet note. i'm working on perfecting cornbread. when i was younger i always had the job of making the cornbread, and once i had my hand in it, i decided to depart from what grandma served up. see grandma is a traditional southern cook, and doesn't believe that cornbread should be sweet or cooked in any other pan besides her cast iron skillet.

now don't get me wrong, i love cooking cornbread in a cast iron skillet, the texture can't be beat. but um...can we sweeten it a bit...make that a lot?

so as a child i would heavily pour the sugar in, so much so that i would get a sticky glaze on top of the cornbread when it cooked up. no one ever complained...so hey, i stuck to it. (grandma would though...i never cook at grandma's house...she wouldn't have of it)

now without the eggs and the extra sugar, i'm getting a more gummy texture that i'm trying to fix. don't get me wrong, the taste is dead on...but the egg replacer and the sugar i think is altering the texture a bit...so i'm working with different ratios of flour and cornmeal to get it just right.

okay i'm rambling on too much. i'll post the recipes sometime soon...

i should have some sweet things to share in the next few days...being that chocolate love day is tommorrow and my birthday is saturday...

e already promised to make me a chocolate ding dong cake like he did for my 29th b-day...i can't wait!

i hope you've had a peaceful week...full of good eats!

paz,
ki