Learn to cook

Made s’more graham crackers with a friend. We didn’t have all of the ingredients so we ended up improvising a lot, and they still turned out great.

Tried making saltines- used a lot of subs- maybe I shouldn’t have used vanilla flavored milks and whole wheat flour because it made them taste a little off. I also cooked them a little too long. They weren’t bad dipped in hummus though. And not too many ingredients either. They weren’t unhealthy at least!

Made another chocolate cream pi with chocolate graham cracker crust the other day for a party at a friend’s house. Very good reviews. Tasted great. Would like to try making the crust completely from scratch (i.e. using the graham cracker recipe I have).

Currently making:
Cornbread

It just got out of the oven. I decided to make half a batch (because I barely had enough corn meal for half). The pan I used was too large and it didn’t spread all the way across, but I don’t really care. It tastes good. Next time I’ll add fresh corn kernels and use the full amount of corn meal.

Also making oregano&olive oil foccacia
It is rising right now, and looking quite good. I love the smell of making fresh bread. I used half whole wheat graham flour and half all purpose white. It’s also done rising. I brushed olive oil on it after kneading it a bit (which is fun, though hard to get the dough off my hands afterwards). Can’t wait to taste it.

i’ve been a cooking machine lately!

let’s see… i made another (cherry) cheezecake- this one for the folks at work for a memorial day cookout. i hand crushed the graham crackers since they didn’t have any crumbs at the store that were vegan friendly. i also used silken tofu instead of the firm i regularly use, and added some agar agar as a thickener. it worked out very well. a little creamier, but it held together decently well. they liked it at work.

for a family cookout/ party i made some natural peanut butter cookies (adapted from a sesame tahini cookie recipe that was adapted from a peanut butter cookie recipe originally). my recipe didn’t say how long to bake the cookies, so after ten minutes when the cookies were only warm but not at all cooked, i was a bit nervous. luckily they cooked amazingly well. it only took 25 minutes. and some patience. there was a little frosting-y stuff that i drizzled on top (confectioner’s sugar, cinnamon, and a tad of soy milk). i had no complaints with these cookies. someone even asked for the recipe.

i also made some almond/ cranberry/ orange bread/cake. that turned out pretty well. it was a good combination. my only problem was cutting it before it had cooled, so it fell apart a little. taste was good. got hard after a few days so you gotta eat it fast (no problem).

my friend and i made some lemon bars. i had never had lemon bars, but they sounded like fun. they smelled like some lemon-y cold medicine i had had when i was little, so i didn’t like that part. and i guess i don’t really love the lemon-y taste, but they came out alright. a little odd looking- but that’s probably how they look anyways. we used lots of agar agar in place of gelatin to firm up the lemon part. they were alright. i probably won’t try making them again….

my friend and i also made some peanut butter/ ginger/ sesame cookies… that ended up having none of the above in it. we did a lot of subbing. instead of PB, we used a blend of cashew butter, tahini, and almond butter. the recipe also called for candied ginger which we didn’t have. and it wanted us to roll the cookies in sesame seeds, which we didn’t do. the cookie batter was much too sticky/oily to make little cookies out of so we just poured the batter into a brownie pan and ended up with an ultra huge cookie that we cut up. it tasted great, was soft and chewy, but very oily.

the other night i was reading my cookbook and i saw the recipe for pound cake. i happened to have some soy yogurt and silken tofu (the secret ingredients to vegan pound cake, as opposed to eggs and butter) and whipped some up. i took it out of the oven a minute or two too soon. it tasted great, but i could have left it in longer. will make again. very easy, was awesome. took some to work and it was gobbled up.

i had the day off one day last week and decided to try my hand at the chickpea cutlets, which looked delicious. it had chickpeas and vital wheat gluten (to give it that chewy, sticktogetherness) and some other normal ingredients like sage and olive oil. it took 10 minutes to prep and 35 to cook, but- it tasted delicious. it didn’t look too bad either. my mom tried it and loved it (and she is often hesitant around vegan food) and my brother tried it and asked for the recipe. very easy, very tasty, plenty o’ protein. tastes good in a sandwich or alone.

i had a dinner party the other night… so i figured i would try out this recipe i had been eyeing for months…. (a dessert, of course) and it had a graham cracker crust (i ran out of graham crackers so i used some almond meal, which is a bit crumby so that’s probably why the crust didn’t stay together well) with chocolate filling (silken tofu and melted chocolate chips- it tastes and looks delicious), topped with a peanutbutter caramel and maple candied pecans (i didn’t have any maple syrup so i made my own kind of with corn syrup and maple extract. i used a little too much molasses when i was trying to recreate the brown rice syrup i didn’t have, and i cooked the pecans a little too long), and then drizzle that with melted chocolate. it looked delicious, and it still tasted delicious. i know exactly what i would do differently next time i make it, but this just may be one of my signature desserts… it looks like i spent all day making it (well, .... i did spend two hours cooking/baking and 3 hours for it to cool).

and today i was just lounging around and i saw some over ripe bananas hanging out on the counter… so i decided to make use of them…...... banana bread! with bananas and apple sauce replaced most of the oil (thus make it low fat). it was delicious with a light banana taste and not too sweet either. nothing was overpowering, a great snack or breaskfast-y dessert-y food. will make again next time i see bananas looking a bit too ripe.

i’ve been making a lot of stuff lately, eh!

been making cookies, cheezcake, and other fun goodies lately.

the other night i made a batch of muffins using the recipe my mom used to use when we were growing up. i think it was passed down to her. i did a few substitutions- soy garden buttery spread for butter, soy milk/ almond milk for the dairy milk, and unsweetened applesauce for the egg. i was concerned with how the egg substitute would act in the recipe. there are so many different subs for eggs out there that i didn’t know which one to choose (flax, oil, soy flour, ener-g, applesauce, bananas, etc). but it turned out really well- they tasted just like mom used to make them- only maybe a little more moist and they rose a little more (i accidentally put in a table spoon of baking soda instead of a teaspoon and then realized and tried to scoop out as much as i could, but it worked out). i loved the muffins, and my dad liked them too. however they don’t taste healthy enough for me. so next time i’ll get out some whole wheat flour, flax seed, and maybe natural sweetener and see what i can create….

We made granola bars/Power bars/protein bar-ish things last time!

Using oats, brown rice cereal, chopped pecans, slivered almonds, chocolate chips, brown rice syrup and maybe a few more things.

They were incredibly easy to make.
And easy to eat as well. (Well, until they got hard, but you could heat them for 20 seconds and they’d be gooey and fine).

Only 2 changes I’d make when we do them again.
We accidentally put a tablespoon of sugar instead of a teaspoon and so added lots and lots of sugar to counter it. But you could still sort of taste it a little. Not much. But enough.

We also decided to drizzle melted chocolate over it, but we used unsweetened chocolate- and later eating it- gah, it’s so bitter. Next time use sweetened chocolate.

Other than that, it’s tasty. It’s easy.

Last week Chris and I created some delightful cupcakes (and then some mediocre ones).

The winners?

Jelly Donut Cupcakes.

They had this hardened somewhat crisp top- with we sprinkled a bit of confectionery sugar on to- so that it looked and tasted more like a jelly donut. Yum. Yum. Yum. Roomies liked ‘em too. Yum. Even though the jelly sunk to the bottom of the cupcake, they were still surprisingly easy to make and tasty as well!

Chris and I got together early this morning
to do some baking.

We created Pistachio Rose Water Cookies.
by making cookie batter and adding some rose water (which is perfumey/flowery in smell, but clear like water). We rolled the batter into tiny balls and dipped them into crushed pistachios to give them a cute little crunchy topping and then baked em for a bit.

I think our only problem was that we baked them for too long so many of them were hard-as-a-rock. But they tasted….crispy… and delicate… The cookies were really thin and they had this tang to them (probably the lime juice and lime zest). They were good though. A bit unusual.

Then we made some pancakes with amaranth flour (and maple extract) (and whole wheat flour) (and some other ingredients)

The pancakes were very light and fluffy. They came apart (in a good way) (so you didn’t need a knife) when you dug a fork into ‘em. A very easy recipe. Took 5 minutes to make the batter and another 5 to cook. Tasted excellent with real maple syrup.

I made cupcakes.

Traditional vanilla cupcakes with a spot of maple extract and extra attention given to the sifting.

The result? (Wait, was exactly was the cause?) These were the fluffiest airiest cupcakes I’ve ever had. Wow. They tasted vaguely of pancakes but maybe that was the maple extract.

I made buttercream frosting to put on top (with a spot more of maple extract) and that was rich, very very white (with the confectioners sugar and the Earth Balance butter). Sweet, so smooth, tasty- but very rich.

Would definitely make again. Maybe try a new frosting?

Today was Easter and my opportunity to create a meal for myself that my family might be interested in trying.

I decided upon

Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onions and Sage Crumb Topping

It was pretty easy to make- just took an hour and half of time.

I made the sage crumb topping using home-made bread crumbs (just tear up a few French dinner rolls and throw em in the blender with a small handful of pecans/walnuts), then brown them in a pan over low heat with butter and sage/fun spices. Makes a great topping. And so easy.

The caramelized onions were easy to make as well, though they took more time. The hardest part was slicing the onions (real thin), but only because I started crying. They came out well.

And the Cashew Ricotta that went along with it- really made the dish what it was. A pound of firm tofu, some raw cashews, lemon juice, and a few more things- mix until smooth in a blender. Believe me, it blends very well. So smooth and creamy looking. Add that to the pumpkin puree and then mix with the ziti and top with the sage crumbs.

It looked pretty good, I’ll admit. I was curious as to how it would taste though, with the pumpkin (I’ve never had pumpkin before). My family liked it, which surprised me (they all tried it). I thought it was pretty good (I mean, I had seconds), but I had to add extra salt and pepper because I thought it was way too sweet with the pumpkin and nutmeg. But it was tasty; a fun alternative to plain old tomato sauce. I wasn’t crazy about it- but would make again- I liked the cashew ricotta a lot, so I might try that with tomato sauce and see how it tastes.

The second thing we created was chocolate coconut cupcakes- with a peppermint buttercream frosting and more haphazardly drizzled chocolate. This was for coconut lovers only. It had four types of coconut in it- coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut extract, and shredded coconut. It also had a spot of chocolate.

I liked that the chocolate wasn’t overwhelming. More prominent was the frosting, and further, the peppermint. I think the frosting made the cupcake and the chocolate made the presentation golden.

It was very tasty as well. I’m not sure if I loved the shredded coconut’s presence in the cupcake, but I did love the taste. Would make again.

Last night I decided to make muffins. Honest ones.
Applesauce and Oat bran muffins with raisins.

Complete with oat bran and whole wheat flour and unsweetened apple sauce and plenty of healthy things, this cupcake looked ultra bran-ny and ultra healthy. Trust me, it was both. Not very sweet, but filling. The kind of muffin you’d want with/for breakfast. I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t bad. Would make again, if someone asked me to make a healthy muffin.

Wednesday night my friend and I got together.

We decided to make cupcakes- because I had just gotten a really cool cupcake cookbook.

The first one we made was the
Peanutbutter Cupcake

which had all natural peanut butter and haphazardly drizzled chocolate on top.

The cupcake was tasty- reminiscient of peanutbutter cookies, the taste. It falls apart very easily, but tastes very good. Not too sweet either. Would make again- a PB-lover would like this very much!