mochi

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC!! That's right, he is still 6... (a leap year baby). I am making him "all-you-can-eat sushi" tonight. The menu will be: miso soup, mirin soaked shiitake mushrooms, tempura, inari sushi, sushi rolls, and for dessert the mochi in the photo above. What the heck is mochi? Well, it's a dessert made of sweet, chewy rice flour and in this case the center is filled with sweet, mashed red beans. Just try it, it's good. I followed the recipe on Vegan YumYum.

granola

Last Christmas, my mom wrapped up a jar of granola and put it under the tree. It was some good granola, so I asked for the recipe. It comes via my aunt, Terese Honel Bailey, who compiled the recipe from several. Thanks Aunt Terese! Granola recipes are very flexible; you can swap out the nuts, or add dried fruit such as cranberries, raisins, or apple pieces after baking. I recently saw a recipe for granola with pistachios and apricots--sounds good! Store in a dry place. Mix into plain yogurt, with milk, or leave on the table and watch it disappear. You can halve the recipe if you don't have two 9"x13" pans or don't want so much granola (but that won't happen).

Dry Ingredients:
8 cups old fashioned (rolled) oats
1 c. almonds (whole or pieces)
1 c. walnuts (whole or pieces)

Wet Ingredients:
1 c. walnut oil
1 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350º degrees. Mix the oats and nuts. Warm up the wet ingredients and mix well, then pour over the oats and nuts. Spread out on two 9"x13" pans.

Bake at 350º for 15 minutes.  Mix it up and bake at 250º for 15 minutes.

Note: Stir to determine doneness; granola should look sort of dry or at least not have any wet spots. It dries more as it cools. If you bake a bit too long, it will cool and harden into one large chunk; just chop it all up.

rosemary focaccia

The recipe we used for this focaccia said to use a stand mixer on medium for 20 minutes to get the wet dough to come together. We don't have a stand mixer so instead we took turns stirring vigorously for 40 minutes. After all of that early morning arm exercise, we swore we wouldn't bother making focaccia again. Then this beauty came out of the oven... In a way, it's like how mothers go through incredible birthing pains and then somehow decide to do it again.

boulder bourguignon

It is sad to see good restaurants close. One restaurant that I am missing these days is Sunflower Restaurant in downtown Boulder. Though it was a tad expensive, it served delicious, organic food that had a flavor profile to match the price (unlike some fancy restaurants). Just the other day, I had a craving for their "Boulder Bourguignon" so I attempted to recreate it. Do you have any favorite restaurants/dishes that you miss?

Bourguignon Ingredients:
16 oz. seitan, torn up bites
8 oz. tempeh, crumbled
6 T. soy sauce
6 T. maple syrup
2 T. vegan margarine
2 T. olive oil
liquid smoke
black pepper
2 T. flour
8 oz. yellow potato, cubed
8 oz. beet, peeled and cubed
4 oz. carrot, sliced
3 c. red wine
2-3 c. veggie broth
1 T. tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. thyme
1 bay leaf
salt
8 oz. pearl onions
1 T. vegan margarine
1 T. olive oil
thyme
salt
black pepper
1/2 c. veggie broth
4 oz. small mushrooms

Creamy Polenta Ingredients:
8 c. water
2 c. coarse corn meal
2 T. vegan margarine
2 t. salt

If you don't know how, making seitan at home is super easy and cheap. I will post about the process sometime soon.

Heat seitan and tempeh in soy sauce, maple syrup, margarine, oil, and liquid smoke over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to low and toss the seitan and tempeh in flour and black pepper. Let it cook for a few minutes. Transfer the seitan and tempeh to a 9x13 baking dish and add the potatoes, beets, carrots, red wine, veggie broth, tomato paste, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and salt. Mix. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 2 hours. Stir up the mixture every 30 minutes or so. You can add additional veggie broth if things start to dry out. Your goal is to have liquid covering everything.

30 minutes before the bourguignon finishes in the oven, saute pearl onions in oil, margarine, salt, pepper, and thyme until browned. Add 1/2 c. veggie brother and simmer with cover for 20 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the onions and continue to cook. When you take the bourguignon out of the oven, stir in the onions and mushrooms

Start the water boiling for the creamy polenta 30 minutes before the bourguignon comes out of the over. Once the water is boiling, stir in the coarse corn meal. Continue to stir for 20 minutes. Add margarine and salt.

Serve the bourguignon next to or on top of the creamy polenta and enjoy!!

happy v-day!

Eric and I made heart shaped chocolates for valentine's day. After tempering organic/fair trade chocolate chips, we poured the melted chocolate into molds and mixed in different things like pine nuts & cayenne, crystallized ginger, dried cherries soaked in amaretto, peanut butter, and wasabi. Tempering chocolate is pretty fussy - definitely not my favorite activity. The final results make it all worthwhile though. <3

winter produce

We rode our bikes out to Jay Hill Farm to purchase local/organic arugula, rainbow chard, and garlic. Yummmmm....

herbal spider bite remedies?

Hey peoples I need your help! In the past few months, I've developed an allergy to spider bites. They start out looking like normal sized bites but over a few days they swell up huge. Anybody out there have herbal remedy suggestions? I already tried plantain tea mixed with bentonite clay and applied to the surface of the bite. It is supposed to absorb the venom but I haven't noticed much of a difference though who knows, maybe you're supposed to used this remedy right away whereas I didn't do anything until day 3...

peach and almond tartlets

Smitten Kitchen has some seriously good looking photos of food. I finally got around to making one of her recipes - pear and almond tart. I subbed out the pears with home canned peaches and I made four tartlets instead of one tart. End result, excellent.

an apron for eric

I was feeling crafty this weekend so I made an apron for Eric! (and he made delicious bread)

dal soup

My mom asked for a red lentil recipe since my brother and I left them behind over the holidays. This one's for you mom!

Serving size: 4

Ingredients:
2 c. red lentils
7 c. water
1/2 t. turmeric
1 T. canola oil
1 T. butter
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. ginger, minced
1 t. mustard seeds
1 t. cumin seeds
1 t. coriander seeds
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
salt to taste
2 T. lemon juice
1 T. cilantro (optional)

In a medium pot, bring the red lentils, water, and turmeric to a boil. Turn down the heat and let it simmer covered for 30 minutes.

In a small frying pan, heat the oil and butter over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger, mustard, cumin, coriander, and cayenne and cook for about a minute. Don't worry if you don't have whole seeds, you can use ground spices. Pour the browned spices into the soup and salt to taste. Turn off the heat and add lemon juice and optionally cilantro (we used frozen cilantro from the summer). Enjoy!