VeganMOFO: Hurricane Sandy Muffins

Hello!  We're starting off this week with a good old-fashioned hurricane! Just kidding, there is nothing good about this. Hurricane Sandy is barreling towards the East Coast at this very moment, and NYC is shut down completely. Seriously, all the subways and busses, the New York Stock Exchange, Grand Central Station, airports, local businesses, everything. They're even shutting down the Holland and Battery tunnels this afternoon. President Obama declared a state of emergency. There was a mandatory evacuation of all Zone A residents, by the waterfronts, last night. I'm in Zone B, and Zone C technically starts across the street, so I think I'll be okay. I'm not sure I have ever seen the city this serious about a storm, and I have to admit it is making me a bit nervous. It's SUPER windy outside and we've seen a little rain. Parts of the city have already started to flood and Sandy hasn't even touched down yet. The big surge is supposed to happen this evening, during high tide (and it's a full moon too!) where a 6-11ft surge of water is expected. So yeah...nervous!

I weather-stress-baked last night and made some apple spice muffins and a loaf of Green Monster bread. Nik and I are just trying to keep busy working today and anxiously looking out the window. Hopefully we don't lose power... Stay safe East Coast friends!

VeganMoFo Day 25-Iron Chef Challenge #3 Results: Apples + PB!

This week's challenge was apples with peanut butter. Hello childhood snackage and delicious fall combo. I don't know about you guys, but I'm up to my ears in apples, so I'll prolly be making a few of these this week. Let the challenge begin!

The Republic of Bunny whipped up an Apple Peanut Butter Dessert Chimichanga for this week's challenge. Holy smokes! Chimichangas always make me say that. Giant wrap of deliciousness!


Tami, from Vegan Appetite, made the most mouth-watering Apple Peanut Butter Fritters. Perfect fall festival food!



Veg-in-Training went for some breakfast decadence with her Apple Cinnamon Scones with a Peanut Butter Glaze. Just look at that glaze!


Megan, from Down Home Vegan, made the ultimate comfort pie with her Honeycrisp Apple Crisp. Apple crisps are the best, and I can only imagine PB as a bonus for the taste buds.



Laura, from Peace by Pastries, made a Local Apple Pie with a Peanut Butter Shortbread Crust and Peanut Streusel Topping. Look for it soon on her blog!

Geeky White Girl made some Apple Peanut Butter Brownies that will be posted on her blog tomorrow! Holy drool!


I wanted cookies in bar form, so that's the route I went. A little on the crumbly side, but Nik and I inhaled them in a day, so I must have done something right.

Peanut Butter Apple Cookie Bars:
Ingredients:
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar (brown sugar would be good here too, but I was out!)
1/2 cup Peanut Butter ( I used natural creamy PB)
1 tsp. Vanilla

1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp corn starch

2 cups diced apples

1. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a baking dish (I used an 8"x11.5" one)
2. Cream oil, sugar, PB, and vanilla together until smooth and creamy.
3. Add in Baking powder, salt, flour, and corn starch and stir until well-combined. It will be crumbly.
4. fold in apples
5. spread dough into baking pan and smooth down
6. Bake for 35 minutes (dough was still soft coming out, but crisps up a bit after cooling. )

They're crumbly, but highly addictive!

Hmmm...stay tuned for the last challenge of VeganMoFo!

VeganMoFo: Iron Chef Challenge #3: Apples and Peanut Butter

This week's challenge is Apples and Peanut Butter! Brings you back to grade school lunches or after-school snacks, yeah? Go bigger than that!

Same as last week: Basic rules are just to make sure and use both ingredients, but anything goes after that! Sweet, savory, whatever floats your boat. This is just for fun, so no winners or anything, just a friendly challenge. Post your results here by 7pm (eastern time) next sunday, and I'll highlight some on my blog, along with the next challenge info.

VeganMoFo Day 6-Apple-Pear Bread

This is a childhood favorite bread, that my Mom used to make every summer, with the bounty from our white peach tree in the yard. I needed to use up the ridiculous amount of apples and pears that I have already started accumulating (seriously! Need to make a pie soon!), so I decided to substitute the peaches and make this lovely sweet bread.



Apple-Pear Bread (makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients:
5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 TBS baking powder
2 tsp salt
6 TBS vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups soy milk
2 egg replacer (I used ener-g)
2 cups chopped apples and pears
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix dry ingredients together in a (very)large bowl. Add remaining wet ingredients and mix gently. Bake in two greased loaf pans at 350 F for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. This is a really, really moist bread, so I usually refrigerate it so it lasts longer!

What to feed non-vegans

I have a thanksgiving-style potluck tomorrow at work, and I always get a bit worked up about what to bring. I usually stick with desserts, except for that one year I made stuffed mushrooms with tofu cream cheese and spinach. It was the first time that I had EVER made them, and I forgot two very important things A)how much mushrooms shrink and how downright dinky and minimal they looked, and B) oohhhhh the excess water that comes out of them and stays in the pan. I didn't look at them before I gave them to the woman in charge of the shindig, and only realized in the line of 90 other people, that my mushrooms were swimming in their own juice. Oh the horror. So yes, I stick with desserts. Easy and usually a hit. Last year I made pumpkin-chocolate chip cupcakes and maple-pecan cupcakes, which were gobbled up without the knowledge of their veganness. Mwuahaha. Anyways, this year I decided to make something with apples in them (because as I have mentioned a bajillion times before, I have a bajillion of them that I need to do something with). My mom had sent me this groovy recipe cut out of the newspaper, for an apple-pear tart made in little phyllo dough cups and I thought that might be good for a potluck. I set the recipe aside this morning, but somehow completely lost it. It just vanished! So I improvised. I've always liked cranberry paired with apples, (and bonus for ultimate thanksgiving-ness of the foods) and I've worked with phyllo dough enough times to feel okay preparing it for other people.

Cran-Apple-Pecan Phyllo Cup

Preheat oven to 400 F

Makes 24 little cuties, using two mini-muffin pans

Ingredients:
8 Sheets of Phyllo Dough
About 1 cup of Earth Balance, melted (this is approx., I have one of those huuuuge tubs of the stuff and I just cut some out)

3 apples, coarsely chopped
Cinnamon
Sugar
a little water

a quarter of a 12oz bag of cranberries
a little water
1/2 cup-ish of sugar

Directions:

1) Using a pastry brush, brush EB onto one half of phyllo dough. Fold unbrushed side onto brushed side and brush some more. Do this one more time, so that you have 4 layers of phyllo dough, all brushed with EB inbetween layers. Using a pizza cutter, cut into 6 equal squares. Fit each square into your mini-muffin pan. I squished down the sides to make a more stable crust (I have to bring these with me onto the subway tomorrow morning!!), but they look pretty cool all wild-like sticking out. Brush with more EB, if the top is looking a little dry. Here's where I ran into a little freakout moment: I put them in the oven, and when I checked them five minutes later, they were all puffed up!! I quick took a small spoon and kinda pushed them back down carefully, and that seemed to do the trick. So yes, watch them carefully!! Bake until lightly browned, about 10ish minutes.

2)Make some applesauce!! I just throw the apples, a few splashes of water, a few shakes of cinnamon, and a handful of sugar in a pot and boil/stir. When the apples are tender, I use a potato masher and mash away at them.

3) Make some cranberries!! I always scoff at the back of cranberry packages, when it calls for 1 cup of sugar. It always seems like waaaay too much sugar for how many cranberries there are, but then I tastetest and remember how SUPER-TART those little buggers are. So yeah, in goes more sugar. I just add until my lips don't purse anymore at the taste of them. Boil until water is evaporated/absorbed, and pop those cranberries with a fork or something.

4) I let everything cool for a bit before I assembled. I was scared of what color it might be if I combined the applesauce and cranberries, so I played it safe by just layering (totally prettier) them and topping with pecans.

FYI, I totally doubled the amount of applesauce and cranberries I used and just combined them in a dish for dinner tomorrow!! (also, the color was actually not pukey-pink looking and kinda pretty)

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After all that, I made some Quesadillas. I used FYH Cheddar, Kale, leftover sweet potatoes, a clove of garlic, and a some random shakes of spices (pepper, thyme, paprika) in a whole wheat tortilla. I was super-patient about cooking it at low heat in a covered pan, so that the FYH cheese would have a chance to get all melty, and it was well worth it!

Roasted Butternut Squash and Kale White Lasagna and Apple Brown Sugar Muffins

First Butternut Squash of the season! I got it in my CSA last saturday and have been dying to eat it all week. Last night I finally got around to peeling it ('cause honestly, that's the only thing that holds me back from eating winter squash). I decided to make a white lasagna (I'm all about the homemade vegan cheese lately for some reason...super-comfort food?) with roasted butternut squash and some kale.

I chopped up one whole butternut squash and drizzled some olive oil, sea salt, and pepper over it and roasted it in the oven until tender (25 min.?) In the meantime, I boiled half a box of lasagna noodles and made the cheese sauce. This has verrrry very quickly become my new default cheese sauce; sooo goood! It gets really thick too (can be thinned with water). I carmelized some onions in the pan before I started to mix in the sauce ingredients. You'll only like this sauce if you are a big nooch fan though (which I am!) Super-noochy! Does the word "nooch" remind anyone else of Jay and Silent Bob?

When the squash is tender and done and delicious, mash up in a bowl. I just layered all the ingredients in a pan, noodles, mashed squash, raw kale leaves, cheese sauce. Repeat. Top with some chopped chives. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the noodles start to get a bit crispy on top.




I still have a bajillion apples that I need to get rid of (and 5 more lbs. coming on saturday!!!), so I made super-awesome muffins tonight. I had a sweet tooth and was getting really sleepy-eyed, so I needed something to fix both of those problems. Sleepy-eyed-ness was cured by getting off my butt and going into the kitchen. I have a default muffin base that I use, which modify with a different fruit and spices. It comes from AmyArgh's Blueberry Muffin recipe (which I know that I have raved about before). It's super-simple and you just throw everything in a bowl and mix.

Apple Brown Sugar Muffins
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup veg. or canola oil
2 ENER-G eggs
1/3 cup soy milk
a few shakes of cinnamon
1 apple, chopped tiny

Topping:
1 apple, cut into 12 slices
brown sugar

Mix all the ingredients together into a bowl, adding apples in last (should be cookie dough consistancy). Spoon into lightly oiled or greased muffin pan. Sprinkle each muffin with brown sugar (it gets all melty and carmel-like after it's done baking, mmmm) and top with a wedge of apple. Bake for 25 minutes!



I've been hard at work on 12 new paintings. I reached the half-way point tonight, and hope to bust my ass this week to finish them all. They are going to go into my 2009 calendar and will eventually become individual prints for my shop. They are making me really happy so far!

Sammiches and pie

Today was a good day; Super-sunny and productive. I slept in late and made a nice pancake brunch (mmm apple-cinnamon! I have a bajillion apples!), made a grocery-run, and then worked on a painting at a coffee shop. Tonight's dinner was a ginormous beanball sub, using the beanballs from Vcon (except made with chickpeas) and just slathered with a fire-roasted tomato sauce (with added onions, garlic, and braising greens). I love mega-sandwiches!



I've made this sandwich twice this week; Tempeh slathered in a thousand island-esque dressing on crusty bread (bread pictured is Kalamata Olive). So easy and yummy. I boil the tempeh until it's super-tender.

Just when I thought I had my apple stock under control, making this Apfel Kuchen, then my CSA went and gave me 14 more apples yesterday. D'oh! I was thinking about making some apple hand-pies (like pop-tarts?) and freezing them.

VeganMoFo Day 4-Iron Chef Challenge!

Katie came up with the idea of an Iron Chef Challenge, using two ingredients that are announced a day ahead of time. So fun! The first challenge was to make something with Apples and Ginger, and I immediately thought DOUGHNUTS. I bought doughnut cutters awhile ago and have been itching to attempt to make some. Perfect opportunity! I decided to make apple-ginger doughnuts with a powdered sugar/cinnamon/ginger coating. They worked out better than I imagined and I totally ruined my dinner tonight by eating too many while making them (gotta "test" them.)

First I made some homemade applesauce, using two apples, a few splashes of apple cider, and some fresh minced ginger. I let that cool and used 3/4 cup in place of the egg replacer in this recipe.

Apple of my Eye

Beautiful day out! This is that painting I was talking about. I've been eating a whole lot of apples lately, which is something that isn't very common this time of year. It's the only fruit at the farmer's market though! Lonely apples. And they have been pretty tasty too. Ohhh, I can't wait for summer fruits though. This is the time of year when I get antsy for more variety in my fruits/veggies. No more root veggies!

Anyways, this was painted with watercolor and gouache on a heavily gessoed pine board. 16"x20". Prints are available in my shop!