VeganMoFo: Seitan and Mushroom Empanadas

Marvin the Hedgehog loves doughnuts and empanadas the best. 

Marvin is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

So that seitan and mushroom stuffing that I used for the stuffed mushrooms? SO GOOD.  Nik and I were invited to a Dominican-themed Birthday party last Saturday, in which I was the only vegan (or even vegetarian) in attendance.  I used this as a perfect excuse to make something I have never made before out of Viva Vegan, to bring with me, and empanadas won out (I have no clue why I have never made them before!)  I made them in mini version so that they were potluck-friendly and they were a hit!  Also, they're pretty!
 

VeganMoFo: Stuffed Mushrooms

Happy Mushrooms and Snail is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

The mushroom lady at my local farmer's market had some really nice (and huuuuge) crimini mushrooms last weekend that were practically begging to be stuffed.  So stuff I did.  I made the filling from the Seitan and Mushroom Empanadas, out of Viva Vegan, because I thought it would translate well into a stuffed mushroom (and into my tummy!), and because I had a dinner party full of omnivores to go to this Saturday, and it was a test run to see if I should bring the empanadas (I did!) Holy delicious!  It's the Kalamata olives that do it, I'm sure of it. It's a great unexpected salty twang that I just loved.  Also, I could eat stuffed mushrooms everyday. 

VeganMoFo Day 04: Soy and Sake

Veggie Sushi is the best.  One of my favorite vegan NYC restaurants is Soy and Sake, where their specialty is vegan sushi (plus a whole lot of other things).  I went out with a friend there recently, and we pretty much inhaled everything.   We ordered the Rock Shrimp Tempura as an appetizer (because it's my absolute favorite and I order it everytime I go there).  For my main course, I went for the Soy chicken tempura bento box (!! HUGE !!)  I definitely couldn't finish this, but hey, leftovers are awesome!  

Today's charity painting is a veggie themed one, because veggie sushi can be super-creative and impressive and I felt like saying HOORAY FOR VEGGIES.  

Happy Veggies painting for sale here.

Medium: Watercolor on heavy Arches paper
Size: Approximately 8"x8" (image size is 7"x7")
Will fit in 8"x8" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!

The Rock Shrimp Tempura appetizer. Possibly my favorite appetizer of all time.

Soy Chicken and Veggie Tempura Bento box, with miso soup, california roll, edamame, dumplings, salad. YUM. 

VeganMofo 2010: Creamy Portabello Mushroom Soup

Super-happy rainbow mushroom family!

It's soup season here!  I had this Portabello Mushroom soup once, at a restaurant, and have been dying to recreate it.  It was really simple, thick, and had a pure mushroom taste to it. Total yummers.  I like to thicken soups up with cashews, to make them super-creamy without detracting too much from the main flavor. This came pretty close to the restaurant version!  I have a vague recipe, because that's usually how I am when I'm making something in the kitchen...vague.  You know what I mean. Anyways, it's easy and makes a quick weekday meal!

Vague recipe (sorry!) for Creamy Portabello Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:
4 medium sized portabello mushrooms, sliced and diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 TBS Earth Balance Margarine
1/3 cup raw cashews

veggie broth
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Saute onion in pan with Earth Balance until soft. Add mushrooms and cook until tender.
Add cashews, mushrooms, and onions to blender and add enough veggie broth to just cover. Blend to desired thickness and add more veggie broth for thinner soup.  Heat up in sauce pan and season with salt/pepper.

Daring Cooks-March Challenge-Risotto

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

For this challenge, I have had a bunch of dried mushrooms laying around and decided to put them to good use. I made a basic vegetable stock while adding the dried mushrooms to rehydrate, and then adding this to the Risotto base. Super yummy and fantastic for a rainy night! Nik and I enjoyed this while watching that movie Men Who Stare at Goats (which is really good!)


Vegetable stock:

2 large potatoes, quartered
4-5 smaller carrots or 1 big one (I had small finger-sized ones)
bag of dried mushrooms (I had a wild mix from Whole Foods)
2 small onions
water (I filled up my 3 1/2 QT. pot about 3/4 of the way with water)

I really enjoy Bryanna Clark Grogan's veggie broth (scroll down a little) and just kinda freely added in some of the same ingredients she uses in her dry broth powder to my stock.

Simmer for an hour. I discarded the potato and left everything else in to be added to the Risotto base.

Risotto Base

Ingredients:
2 oz. olive oil
1 small onion, quartered
14 oz. Arborio rice
2 oz. white wine
vegetable stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil
2. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
3. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
4. Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two).
5. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
6. Repeat Step 4 and continue stirring often.

Yum!

cutiepants paintings!

So here are those mini-paintings I was yapping about a few weeks ago. I am pretty happy with how they came out. There were ten originally, but Mister Banana got cut. Maybe he'll make the team in the future, but not right now. I think that my favorite is Señor Cinnabun. He will eat your (cutie)pants! These are 4"x4" and 4"x6" and prints are up in my shop!