First Annual World Wide Vegan Bake Sale- Missoula, Mt!

Quick ‘N Easy Potato Salad

Kat here, filling in for Emma while she wastes her time away cooking for me. A couple weeks ago Emma and I had the most productive day of our sad and short lives. We were the only ones in the area during Spring break and sadly were forced to spend the time with each other -we were just that lonely. The Most Productive Day Of Our Lives started at the buttcrack of dawn (pre-6am) when we threw in an hour of pilates before sprinting off to Emma’s where we made 7 loaves of tasty bread (whole wheat, focaccia, and flax seed), a massive bowl of vegan tofu-potato salad, and  sewed a dress out of old t-shirts, all in less than 24 hours. It was an amazing day and I’d like to propose it as a possible holiday -the type of holiday where you get school off  -it was just that amazing. Anyhow, somewhere during the day Emma got the brilliant idea to record us making potato salad. I’d like to say it was a spectacular recording, but it really wasn’t, and it was 15 minutes long, so I’m not going to bother posting it, but I’ll have you know it was a damn fine video. Anyway, a couple days later we decide to make some more for the poor souls who actually did shit during Spring break. This time we decided to film our video on campus behind my dorm -fresh air, lots of trees, and some lady with a fucking loud leaf blower. This explains the two-part movie below, as well as Emma screaming her little vegan shaven-head off. This movie went much more smoothly though, and though we omitted the tofu (a terribly foolish mistake), it was still a fantastic vegan potato salad. Below is the recipe (with tofu), and, for your entertainment, Cooking with Kat and Emma -our very first (second) cooking video.

Cooking with Kat and Emma

RECIPE

14-17 Red Potatoes, diced, either peeled or unpeeled

3 stalks of celery

1/2 of a yellow ( or white..or red) onion, diced

1 block of extra firm tofu, pressed and drained

1 jar of pickles, diced

1 bottle mustard

A lot of veganaise

Salt and pepper to taste

Start boiling a stockpot with water. Once the water reaches a boil, go ahead and throw in your potatoes. While these are cooking (until soft enough to poke a fork through), cut your tofu into blocks and pan fry until slightly crispy. Feel free to add any spices to it. We added cumin, tumeric and curry. Yum! Prep all of your veggies. When you potatoes are done, mush them a little with either a fork, hands, whatever. Toss them in your bowl, add your veggies and ‘fu. Take as much liberty as you wish with the veganaise and mustard. We used 1/2 a jar of veganaise, it was juicy. Mustard, salt, and pepper to taste. Enjoy where no one will see you quivering in delight as you eat it. A closet would work well.

Worm Composting & DIY Laundry Detergent

I officially have a worm composting system. I have been wanting to try this since I read the book Worms Eat My Garbage. My New Years resolution is to reduce the waste that comes out of our house, no more packaging, composting, cloth toilet paper, etc. Making your own worm composting system can be done in a variety of ways. You can order a worm composting or make your own.

I got an empty five gallon pickle bucket from work and had Keith drill holes around it for ventilation.  Instead of having to buy the worms for composting, I lucked out through craigslist. Someone in our area was doing the same thing and gave us a scoop of worms for free! Freecycle would be another great place to look.

Next I tore a couple of newspapers into strips, dumped them in water for a couple of minutes and added them in the bucket until halfway full. Then the worms were added, along with some kitchen scraps.

The guy we got the worms from said they like to be about four to five inches under the top layer. They also like a cover on the top, like an old towel, whole sheet of newspaper, etc.

I can’t wait to see the food turn to compost! Even more excited to put it in the garden we’re going to try and build this spring!

In other news, I finally made my own laundry detergent, thanks to this post on the PPK.  I’ve been experimenting with how much to use for laundry, this last load I used about 1/4 a cup, and the laundry had a nice clean smell to it. I’m also using it in the bathroom to put our cloth toilet paper in, that way when it’s full, empty a little bit of the water out and dump the cloth into the machine. No touching dirty cloths required.

Ta-Ta-Tamales!

Tamales are so cheap, easy and tasty. You can cook up a big batch and feed off them for a week if that’s what you would like. I have made tamales probably four times. They were all just “good”. None of them reminded me of the ones we would buy in California when I was little. Last time I made these tamales from Cozy Inside, there’s a nice tutorial. While the corn masa had good flavor, the insides..erm..cleaned us out for a couple of days, so to speak. This time I kept the corn masa flavor the same, but attempted to replicate the filling of these (very nice tutorial on this site, also).  I  made conqueso and added onions, garlic and carrots to the seitan mixture.

TA-TA-TAMALES

STEAMER (We have a small steamer, so also used a rice cooker and that seemed to work good)

FILLING INGREDIENTS:

3 batches seitan, chopped medium size (SAVE YOUR BROTH!!!)

4 carrots, minced

5 cloves garlic

1 onion, diced pretty small

Corn oil

5 tbs chili powder

3 tbs garlic powder

3 tbs cumin powder

2 tbs salt

1 tbs pepper

1 batch conqueso

1 can hatch enchilada sauce

MASA INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs (Half bag of Maseca corn masa)

3 tbs paprika

3 tbs salt

3 tbs garlic powder

3 tbs chili powder

1 tbs cumin

2 cups corn oil

8 ish  cup of your seitan broth

Don’t forget to get corn husks, also! I did not use the whole package, maybe less than half? Guesstimation’s the name of the game.

STEPS:

1. Soak corn husks for two hours in warm water. It works great if you plug your kitchen sink and place them in there.  

While your husks are soaking, prepare 3 batches seitan (or two and just add more veggies than I did). When your seitan is done cooking and cooled, start sauteing your veggies in corn oil. Add spices and seitan. When seitan has cooked for a couple of minutes, add the hatch chili sauce. Heat for two more minutes, then shut off the burner.

At this point you’ll want to start arranging your corn husks on a clean towel. Then go ahead and make your queso sauce.

Mix your corn masa and spices, add corn oil and mix well. Then add your broth (mix in with hands) until a thick peanut butter consistency. This should be eight cups or just a little less.

You are now ready to make your tamales. You may want to grab a helper! Baby decided he would supervise me.

Grab a corn husk and spread corn masa on the wide part of the husk. Start at one side of the wide part and spread until you are 1/2 inch away from the other side. Leave the top 3rd of the husk (towards pointy end) un-masa’d. Once you have spread your masa, add 1 tbs (seems like a little, but as Keith has learned, more filling sucks to fold and it may leak when you steam). Add a dab of queso. Roll up lenghtwise and fold the un-masa’d part up . The wide part of your tamale will be open-faced. Steam your tamales (if your steamer is too small to place them with the open face up, lay them flat) for 45 minutes until firm and the masa comes away from the husk easily.

These were super tasty! If you have any queso sauce left, top your tamale with a bit of it. So. Good.  Just to pimp the queso sauce more, we’ve used that on taco pizza a bajillion times and made nachos supreme with it over Christmas. My boyfriends snarky dad even ate some. And that is a miracle.

Potolino Soup

When I was still living at home, my mom would make “homemade” potato broccoli cheese soup. The basic equation: two cans of Campbell’s soup. Add water. Stir. Even though this wasn’t technically homemade, I LOVED it.  I would always go back for fourths, fifths, and was the one to always finish it off the next morning before anyone could grab it.

I have been wanting potolino soup for awhile. I didn’t know exactly how to replicate it, especially the cheese. I find the commercial soy cheeses disgusting, so that was a no-go. I turned to my partner in crime. Nooch (Nutritional Yeast). Nooch is a beast in the kitchen and managed to help this poor vegan girl out.

POTOLINO SOUP

6 Russet potatoes, peeled, and diced

Enough water to cover potatoes to boil

1 cup water

1 cup unsweetened or plain soy milk (I think a fattier “milk” would be good here too, hemp, perhaps?)

Salt and Pepper to taste

3 tbs earth balance

Half a head of Broccoli

NOOCH SAUCE:

3/4 cup nooch

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk

2 tsp yellow mustard

3 tbs earth balance

Put a large pan with water on the stove at medium heat. Peel and dice your potatoes and start your broccoli steaming. When the water starts to boil, add the potatoes. Your potatoes and broccoli should be done at about the same time. While these cook, start on the nooch sauce. This is going to be thick, more of a paste. On medium heat add soymilk, flour, garlic powder and nooch. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and add earth balance and mustard. When the earth balance is melted, turn burner off and set aside.

By this time your veggies should be done. Drain your potatoes and put them back in the pan. Add the soymilk and one cup water. Take half of this soup and blend it in a blender. Add the mash back to the pot.  Go ahead and add the earth balance, salt and pepper. Chop up your broccoli super fine (it should be quite easy, since it’s really soft). Add this to your potato mixture. Cook for a couple of minutes, then turn the heat off. Add your nooch paste and stir until just mixed, a few clumps of nooch paste are o.k.  Add to a bowl and devour. I’m sure this would taste even better the next day, just like the Campbell’s did.

Daring Baker’s October Challenge

This month’s challenge was pizza! The recipe was fun to make, but when I went to throw the dough, I had some trouble. I don’t have the pizza throwing skills. Need someone to throw your dough and get holes in it? If so, that’s me. I ended up rolling the dough out. We put in a cast iron pan just to create a “deep dish” pizza and to see if it would get crispy on the bottom.

We decided to with ingredients we had on hand: garlic, onions, and bell peppers.

I have also took a video of Keith throwing the pizza dough, but worpress is being uncooperative and won’t load the thing!

The pizza cooked up beautifully and the dough was fabulous cooked in the cast iron skillet. The bottom was so nice and crispy with the top part being soft and doughy. The perfect combination! Will definitely make pizza’s in it from now on!

Donuts. Vegan Donuts.

 

Lame title, I know. But these donuts are the opposite of lame. They’re cool. Cooler than cool. Delicious! The Conscious Kitchen Blog is one  I follow regularly. Last year she posted a donut recipe. It was so easy to make! This past Friday we had a donut party at work. Instead of having to heat oil up on the stove at home, just turn on the fryer at work, and bing! they’re done. Sadly, I did not get any pictures! However, you should go here and make these donuts! I used flax for the egg replacer this time. Last time, it might have been egg replacer. The flax seemed to work really well. Next time I will definitely get pictures.

I do have one recipe to share. This is a smoothie that Keith and I love love to make. I have a smoothie addiction.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

1 banana

1 1/2 (regular not overflowing) handfuls of strawberries

5 or 6 ice cubes

1/2 cup apple juice

You may have to change the ingredients slightly based on how your blender is shaped (perhaps). Blend the ingredients until done.

Breakfast Burritos with Homemade Tortillas

Sometimes there’s nothing nicer than waking up and having easily thrown together breakfast burritos. Yum! We decided to make our own tortillas and boy were they easy! I found a simple recipe off the web that used ingredients we already had.

Tortilla Shells (Makes 8 Medium Sized Shells)

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons shortening

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups boiling water

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together.  Mix the shortening in with a fork (or be like me and use your hands) until well mixed. Add water and knead until dough is soft and not sticky. Place in a lighty oiled bowl and cover for ten minutes.

You can make these tortillas as thin, thick or wide as you want. I used the bottom of a cake pan to make them into a perfect circle.

You’ll want to heat a skillet on low to medium heat. Add just a tiny bit of margarine to the pan so they don’t stick.

Once it is bubbled and slightly browned on one side, flip it over.

Then add the goods!

I love these shells! I want to make up a big batch and freeze them to have on hand.

Fried Goodness

I have been wanting to try beer battered seitan for awhile. I remembered the Get Sconed!  blog had posted about beer battered seitan, and the pictures looked good! The bonus was I had used the seitan recipe before, so it would not be anything new. Last Sunday I started making seitan, not realizing how long it would take to cook it. It sat in the fridge until yesterday because I had no ambition to cook for myself since Keith was out of town for work.

Chicken Broth Recipe

1 1/2 cup nutritional yeast

3 tbsp onion powder

2 1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 1/2 tbsp salt

1 tsp celery seed

2 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning

2 tbsp dried parsley

Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Use tsp per one cup hot water.

Chik’n Seitan Recipe

Dough ingredients:

3/4 cup wheat gluten flour

1/4 cup chickpea flour

1 cup water

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp chik’n broth powder

Cooking ingredients:

1 1/2 cup water

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp chik’n broth powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix “dough” ingredients: flour, water, soy suace, and broth until forms a dough. Knead the dough really well, I did about five minutes. Lightly oil a loaf pan or small baking dish. Mix the cooking ingredients together and pour over dough. Cover with foil, bake an hour, then turn seitan over and bake for another hour.

After you make your seitan, you will want to start making the coating.

One batch of Chicken Style Seitan, cut into ½ inch wide strips
2 Cups Unbleached white flour (you will not need all of this)
12 ounces of vegan beer
½ tablespoon brown sugar
½ tablespoon agave nectar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon dried paprika
Dash of freshly ground pepper
2-3 cups of oil per serving

I would try and add more spices, as ours came out slightly bland. I think garlic and/or onion powder would be a great addition.

Heat oil in a pot on medium heat. Mix all ingredients except chik’n seitan together. You will need about 1 1/2 cup flour, depending. Once your batter is thick as pancake batter, drop your seitan in and coat. Put in the oil until desired golden brown color.

You may want to make sure you get paper towels to drain excess oil off. We didn’t, and while it wasn’t too oily, it would have  been nicer. We had left over batter, so we sliced an onion and added onion rings to the oil. So good!

I really liked this recipe, but would add more spices next time. After letting the seitan sit in the fridge for a week, it was really meaty. These seriously reminded me of nuggets when chopped up. I made up some barbecue sauce to dip them in, along with veganaise and ketchup. Making these really reminded me of how much I loved Funyuns. As in, I could make out with a Funyun right now.

Soft Pretzels

I love soft pretzels. I remember making them for the first time in 7th grade Home Ec class. Soooo good! It wasn’t until high school that I had them again. Working the concession stands at home games really worked in my favor. I’d leave with a pretzel (or two, three..) loaded in a conqueso “soup”. There is no other way to eat pretzels then in a cheesy soup. Yum. For some reason I was thinking about soft pretzels the other day and remembered somebody food porning them and a Recipe on the ppk.  

Soft Pretzels (Makes 10 ginormous pretzels)

2 1/2 cups warm water  + extra
4 1/2 tsp yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
8 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt

For boiling:

6 cups water + 2 tbsp baking soda

First combine your sugar, water and yeast and set aside until slightly foamy. After five to ten minutes, add flour and salt.  When Keith was kneading this, the dough was too dry. You will need the extra water to make into a nice, satiny dough (probably 1/4 or less).

After your dough is kneaded enough, you can be cool like us, and put it in a bowl and set it under your heating blanket to double in size, about 50 minutes. Or, you can be less cool, and use a different method.

When the fifty minutes is up, add the water and baking soda to a pot and get it boiling. Preheat ovcen to 475 F. Roll a handful of dough out and make 10 (more or less depending on how you like them). Boil them until they rise to the surface of the water.

Shake any excess water off and lay them on a tray lined with baking paper.

There are so many option to top the pretzels: salt, earth balance and nooch, earth balance with cinnamon and sugar… Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

I also made the conqueso from this blog. Word to the wise: make sure you drain the chile and tomato can. I didn’t. Still turned out good, but probably would have been thicker and more delish without the extra moisture.