bread!!

You guys, I totally made bread. From scratch! With yeast and everything! Not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed with myself. I followed the recipe from here pretty exactly.

• 4 cups of all purpose or unbleached flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt      
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 package dry yeast     
• 1 3/4 cups hot  water

First: mix the flour, salt, and yeast in a big bowl. Then it said to "form a well" in the dry ingredients and stir in the water and then the oil until it looks like dough. It specifically said to use a wooden spoon but I don't have one so I used a plastic one?? It turned out okay. I don't know what effect a wooden spoon would have but use it if you've got it, I guess.

Then, on a "well-floured" work surface knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it feels "elastic." I have no idea what that means because if you ask me it was elastic to start out with? So I just set a timer for 10 minutes and did that.

Then I put it in in a big bowl (the same one from before but I rinsed it out and then sprayed the inside with olive oil spray) and covered it with Saran wrap for an hour and a half.

Here again I diverged from the recommendation of that website because I don't have any "bread bowls." I have one metal loaf pan. And after the dough has risen for an hour-ish, you're supposed to divide it in half and put the halves in whatever you're going to bake them in (greased) and let them rise again for 20 30 minutes. But only one batch of the dough went in the loaf pan and the other half stayed in the bowl. It turned out okay I guess?

I forgot to say, pre-heat the oven to 375 and bake it for 20 minutes or until it turns "golden brown."

OH and I decided to make one loaf of cinnamon bread so I just mixed 1/4 cup of sugar and a couple good shakes of cinnamon in with the dough. There is maybe a more scientific way of doing that but it turned out pretty tasty.

It is tasty! Kind of dense and I wondered if maybe I didn't knead it enough, or whatever, but my friend Mary (who is an accomplished breadstress and sent me this recipe) says the recipe is for kind of dense bread and if I want something lighter I should try this recipe. WHICH MAYBE I WILL.

Oh and Mary says this recipe also makes good pizza dough which I will definitely try in the future. 

Also I have to say that clean-up after this was a bitch and there is still bread dough stuck to my sponge. Worth it? I guess?

PS I consulted with Mary and she said I should leave it out longer for the second rising and it will be fluffier. I made another batch of bread and left it out for more like 30 minutes on the second rising and it totally worked. Yeah bread!

baked zucchini fries

I adapted this from this recipe. Basically I didn't use cheese. And I halved the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 zucchini
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk (I used soy milk cuz that's all I had, and it was fine)
1/2 cup Japanese Panko bread crumbs*
Salt & pepper

* I actually bought these rather than just saying "eff it, I'll use regular bread crumbs as I might have been tempted to do" and I think it was worth it, they're really light and crispy!

So I preheat the oven to 425 and cut the zucchini into 4-inch spears. I mixed the egg and milk and dipped the zucchini into the liquid mixture, and then into the bread crumbs. At first I misread the recipe and mixed the egg, milk, and bread crumbs all together. Mistake!! It does not work and I had to throw it all away.

After the zucchini pieces were coated, I put them on a olive-oil coated baking sheet. And then I baked them for 15 minutes, flipped them over, and baked the other side for another 15 minutes.

Verdict: I have to be honest; these were not nearly as good as fried zucchini. But I guess they are healthier or whatever. And they were still pretty good. Oh and I have to say that they were not as good the second day when I microwaved, so if you are only making them for one person, maybe only do half the zucchini and dip the other half the next day? Or just eat a whole zucchini in one sitting.

The original recipe also has a recipe for a Greek yogurt dip that probably would have been awesome, but instead I just ate them with ranch dressing.

Thai Tofu Curry

I just made this curry for lunch and it was amaaaazing. And pretty simple, despite the pretty long list of ingredients. I sort of mashed up this recipe and this one and altered it according to what I had on hand.

Sauce:
1 can coconut milk
4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp Thai chili sauce
Juice of an orange
Juice of 1/2 a lime
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
2 tsp curry powder

Then I blended it all in the blender and set it aside.

Tastes better than it looks

OK then I cut up:

1 onion (I think next time I make this I would do 2 onions. But the one I had was pretty small so maybe just 1 big onion. Whatev.)

1 yellow pepper

1 tomato

1 portabello mushroom (because it was about to go bad, otherwise I would definitely just use brown mushrooms or something cheaper)

1 pack of cubed tofu

(The recipes I cribbed from suggested: cauliflower, snow peas, chick peas, yams... I think you could put pretty much whatever vegetables you have lying around into this sauce.)

I started cooking the onions and peppers in a little bit of oil and then poured on the sauce and brought it to a boil.

 

Then I let it simmer for a few minutes and then dumped in everything else and simmered it for like ten minutes.

And then I ate it and it was AWESOME.

I ate it with some Minute Rice because I acquired a box of it when we closed down the camp kitchen for the summer. It was fine even though you are supposed to eat Thai food with jasmine rice. Whatevs.

Vegan-ish Chocolate chip Oatmeal Cookies

These are almost vegan except I used regular chocolate chips. If you get vegan ones, or just use raisins instead, they will be vegan! Whoaaa.

I kind of made this recipe up based on the oatmeal cookie recipe that came on the Meijer brand oatmeal package. They are delicious, if I do say so myself!

Ingredients:
1 cup applesauce (just the regular kind from a jar. I thought using my homemade applesauce would make it too apple-y and cinnamon-y, but who knows, maybe it would have been awesome)
1/2 cup Smart Balance spread
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
3 cups oats
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

So, first I creamed together the sugars, applesauce, and Smart Balance. Then I added the vanilla, flour, salt, and baking soda. Last I stirred in the oats and chocolate chips! I baked them for like fifteen minutes at 350, but I like my cookies crisp and golden brown. Start checking them after 10 minutes if you want them softer.

PS this makes really delicious dough that you can eat without fear of salmonella! Yeah!

applesauce

GUYS I just made applesauce from scratch and it is totally awesome and delicious.

I used this recipe from Simply Recipes.

• 3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• 4 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths
• Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
• 3 inches of cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
• up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

I used a 3-pound bag of Paula Red apples, which I had never heard of before, but which were on sale. Also on the bag it said "perfect for making applesauce" and guess what, they were. Also I didn't peel them because my grandparents used to say that all the best nutrients are in the apple skin and they used to make applesauce with the skin. Also peeling 3 pounds of apples sounded like a lot of work. Whatev.

Also I used lemon juice from a bottle. And a couple good shakes of cinnamon instead of a stick. And no lemon zest. I used the full half-cup of sugar but I think I would recommend less. As is it's not quite too sweet, but pretty sweet.

Anyway, all you do is put everything in a pot together and bring it to a boil. Then take down the heat & simmer it for 20-30 minutes and stir it once in awhile.

Simply Recipes says you can freeze it for up to a year!

Vegan "Buttermilk" Biscuits and "Sausage" Gravy

I'm not going to even pretend this was my idea -- I found this on the VegWeb site and made them this morning...AMAZING. Seriously. I'll just copy and paste. :)

Ingredients:

"buttermilk" biscuits:
2/3 cup non-dairy milk
2 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon apple or orange juice
2 cup unbleached white pastry flour (wheat flour just won't make fluffy biscuits, I have
tried)
2 teaspoons non-aluminum baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
gravy:
1/2 tube Gimme Lean, sausage flavor
salt and pepper
2-3 tablespoons non-hydrated margarine (or olive oil)
2-3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 to 2 cups water

Directions:

Start with gravy. Put margarine or oil in pan and turn on medium. Add Gimme Lean and break into very small pieces. Sprinkle with pepper and stir fry.

Preheat oven to 400*F. In a glass cup or bowl, add lemon juice to non-dairy milk and let it rest for a few minutes to thicken. In a different bowl mix oil and juice and beat them together with fork.

Place flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and stir together. Add oil mixture and mix until it resembles bread crumbs. Then stir enough of the reserved soured milk so the dough leaves the sides of the bowl and SLIGHTLY sticky (not enough and biscuits will be dry).

Place on a floured board and roll or pat to 1" thick and cut into 2 1/2' round biscuits and place on dry baking sheet. Place in oven and bake until light golden (10-12 minutes).

Right before biscuits are done make gravy. Make sure Gimme Lean is nice and browned. Deglaze pan with 1 cup water for 1 minute then mix remaining 1/2 cup water with flour to make thin paste. Add to sausage pan, stir constantly until thick. Season with salt and pepper.

**Note: pepper should be very prominent in the taste! Add enough to really taste it. Fresh cracked pepper is the best for this.

Take biscuits out of oven and cut in half and spread liberally with margarine and top with ample amounts of gravy.

This serves 2 people with gravy on four half biscuits. This can feed more people if you use a whole Gimme Lean, and double the other gravy ingredients.

Serves: 2-4

Preparation time: 20 minutes

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I used all-purpose flour, and they turned out great. Strongly recommend this!

call for simple vegan-ish recipes

Hello food-bloggers! I have been having some stomach pain lately and my doctor recommended that I stop eating eggs, cheese, and fried food for awhile until we figure out what's causing it. I'm a vegetarian with somewhat limited resources, so eggs and cheese constitute a pretty large portion of my diet. Especially eggs! So cheap and so filling! Now I am going to tell you a list of what things are commonly available in the DR and you, perhaps, will provide me with a delicious recipe I can make?

- Fresh vegetables: carrots, onions, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, potatoes, auyama squash. (Not quite the same thing as pumpkin, but for recipe purposes I think it will work in place of pumpkin.) Sometimes tomatoes.
- Fresh fruit: bananas, pineapple, papaya, apples (sometimes).
- Pretty much any canned vegetable.
- Bread.
- Any type of canned bean. Also dried, but I don't have a pressure cooker and I am too impatient to cook them forever.
- Brown rice, white rice.
- Pasta.
- Tomato sauce.
- Most basic spices and condiments.
- Flour, baking powder, other baking necessities.

With these things, mostly I eat: some combination of those veggies stirfried with rice or noodles, or in a sandwich. Or pasta with sauce. And hummus with everything.

I can only bake in a Dutch oven.

Oh and only cheese is banned for me, not other dairy. So if you have a recipe with milk or yogurt, that is okay.

OK go! Feed me!