Veganmofo 2010: An Ode to Apple-Pumpkin Butter

Happy toast. I was going for a "Care-Bear STARE" moment with this (why yes, I AM a child of the 80's!) 

So, I am officially obsessed with apple-pumpkin butter. It's like pumpkin pie on a spoon. And in my belly.  Those cute pumpkins that Nik and I carved last weekend? Yeah, I totally stored them in the fridge and then slaughtered them this week to make some delicious apple-pumpkin butter. I couldn't let them go to waste (and hey, they were $3.00 each!)  

I vaguely followed Susan's recipe, at Fat-free Vegan, but omitting the raisins (blech!! Not a fan!), and used chunks of apples instead of applesauce (and more of them).  And I used two sugar pumpkins, so mine took F O R E V E R to cook. Like four hours! It was a really delicious smelling four hours though. 

Poor kitty cat and big-eyed pumpkins steamed 

Guts scraped out.

DON'T do what I did, and keep it in big chunks cooking. You will have a big burn mark on the bottom of your pan. Puree ASAP!

Much better. Now let this simmer for many hours.

Try not to eat it all in one sitting. (there was a whole other big jar filled, but that mysteriously disappeared.)

So I have been putting this on toast, in my morning oatmeal (um YUM), and my favorite use:

Pumpkin-Chocolate Hot Cocoa!

makes 1 serving

1 Cup Almond Milk (or soy, rice, oat, hemp, etc.)

2TBS unsweetened cocoa powder

2TBS sugar

3TBS apple-pumpkin butter 

Blend all ingredients in blender until combined (or super-whisk if you don't have a blender).

Heat on low in a saucepan, stirring constantly, until desired non-tongue-burning temperature has been reached. Enjoy!

Oh god. It's DELICIOUS.

VeganMofo 2010: Loafing Around

So I wanted a loaf. A veggie loaf, to be exact. It's cold out and has now become the season where all I want for dinner is comfort food.  TV dinner, Mom-style, with lots of mashed potatoes.   I was looking to make a veggie loaf where everything held together and I could smother with ketchup.  This worked well! It held together beautifully! For the veggies, I used celery, a tomato, a jalapeno, a few radishes, and a red onion. Whatever you have in the fridge basically. And make sure you dice them real, real small, so everything holds together well. And then make sure you are liberal with the ketchup and mashed potatoes. Yum, yum, and yum. 

Veggie Loaf

(makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

1 cup lentils

1 cup TVP

1 cup SUPER-diced veggies, your choice

2 TBS Olive Oil

3 TBS Tomato Sauce

1 tsp. liquid smoke

2 Cloves Garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

1/4 cup Vital Wheat Gluten

1 tsp. Thyme

1 tsp. Basil

1 tsp. Parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: (Preheat oven to 350F)

1.  Steam Lentils until cooked.

2. Rehydrate TVP ( I usually add water, a dash of shoyu, and a dash of liquid smoke to it and let it all absorb).

3. Mash Lentils to a paste

4. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with hands until everything holds together and is incorporated. 

5. Oil loaf pan and add loaf.

6. Bake loaf for 1 hour, until golden brown.

7. enjoy!

VeganMofo 2010: The Best Place on Earth

Seriously, farmer's markets are the best places on earth. It never ceases to put a smile on my face (except when people get in my way!), and I absolutely love the change in seasons because it means there are fun new things to be seen and most importantly, eaten. 

I love this goose squash, below, or whatever the heck they are. Holy humoungous!! I've never gotten one...maybe I should? I would probably lose a finger or two trying to cut it up.

Reaping the benefits from my CSA and farmer's market, I made some yummy sauteed collards, with carmelized onions and hot pepper, and some roasted butternut squash.  I have found that the trick to yummy collards is to not really cook them much at all, so you don't just get a mushy mess of greens.  I sauteed the onions and hot peppers for a long time in some olive oil and then when I add in the collards, I put a dash of shoyu sauce and some salt, pepper, thyme, and only let it cook for a couple of minutes more.  I just keep an eye on it and taste it until it they are just slightly wilty, but mostly still crunchy and definately still super-green. Yum!

And ohhh roasted butternut squash is the best. 

VeganMofo 2010: Pumpkin Spice Mini Bundts

Oh hello delicious.  I have had the book Urban Vegan, by Dynise Balcavage, for awhile now, and am finally having some time to make something from it! It being pumpkin season and all, I had to go with the Pumpkin Spice Mini Bundts. Super-yum (especially paired with some hot tea), and I look forward making more from this book. 

A little delicous army of baby bundts:

VeganMofo 2010: Spoooooky (ok, not really)

Happy VeganMoFo!! I'm super-excited about this month (and a little overwhelmed, to be honest. I have a heavy workload on top of this!)  I am planning to blog every weekday with lots of yumminess, pretty photos, and fun illustrations.   Perhaps even a print giveaway?? Stay tuned!

This was the first time that I have carved a pumpkin in about ten bajillion years, so I hope you know how mega-excited I was (and hopefully Nik too, but I kinda made him play along!)  We had little pumpkins, because prices for the big ones in NYC are redonkulous. I miss picking pumpkins in a patch! Maybe I will venture out of the city next year.  Oh, and I will remember to pick up some apple cider to enjoy while carving too (and make doughnuts??) 

Mmmm, roasted pumpkin seeds. I don't rinse mine first, because I like all the dried pumpkiny goodness on the seeds.  I mix a little bit of olive oil, sea salt, and pepper and roast on 400F for a good 15-20 min. or so.  Nom nom nom.

I'm proud of my cutie-cat!  And Nik's is pretty hilarious cute. :)

Spooooooooooooky!  Hope you had a fun Halloween!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (mmm...)

So this is that time of year when I start thinking about Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls.  Katie, from Don't Eat off the Sidewalk, made these amazing creations and they have made many repeats in my kitchen.  In fact, they kinda feel like the start of baking season.  Mmm, so good. Make them! (if you haven't already.)

p.s. For the glaze, it calls for hot water, and I thought I would experiment and try half with the hot water, and then another batch with soy milk in place. Turns out, the hot water is what makes the glaze kind of "sit" on top of the rolls and get hard/flaky, whereas the glaze made with soy milk soaks into the rolls. 

What I wore Today

There is a fun Flickr group called "What I wore Today" where it is drawings only, and I finally got my butt in gear to participate!  I'm going to try and make it a regular or semi-regular thing too. 

I've also been working on some new patterns that I have sent off to Spoonflower to be printed. Eee!! I'm super-excited about them. I don't know why it has taken me so long to try it out.  Here's a little swatch of one of the patterns:

Other than that, I'm just workworkworking on stuff for upcoming holiday fairs that I'm doing and enjoying the cooler weather (omg soup! hot cocoa! lots of tea! chili! pumpkin-anything!)

I'm also getting pretty psyched for VeganMoFo to start in November. Are you participating? I am!

Sad balloons on the ground that lost their owner

One of my favorite things about big storms in NYC is walking around and witnessing the aftermath of them.  Not that I like seeing garbage all over the place, but it cleanses the city and gives it a fresh start.  And there can be a fascinating beauty in destruction.  We had a huuuuge downpour early this morning that woke me out of a dead sleep (seriously, nothing can wake me...even my alarm clock, ha!)  It was raining pretty fiercely and coming in all the windows. There was a frantic run around the apartment trying to close everything and save some things that were getting soaked. And my poor plants outside on my windowsill!  Goodbye chives, you were yummy.

The absolute saddest thing to see is a completely mangled umbrella. It's even sadder when it is on the ground and you wonder if the owner just got so angry at it that it didn't even bother to find a trash can, but just abandoned it mid-stride. 

Phone book, I think?  Why do they even give these out anymore. Does anyone actually use them? 

I posted some pictures from the Makers Faire in my Flickr stream. They're not that great of photos, but really, that faire is amaaaaaazing. It was so nerdy too, with all the little science exhibits and crafty demonstrations and hands-on booths. Love!!

This was my favorite cute puppy video of the week. Hamilton Wesley Wigglebottom!! <3

I tweaked the design of this blog a little the other day, and it's way better now. I was lazy for a way too long about figuring out how to make wider columns and bigger pictures. So yay for overcoming laziness about things you don't like doing!

Anyways, happy weekend!  I'll be at the Hester Street Craft fair tomorrow, in Manhattan. If you live in NYC, stop by and say hi!