I spend all year thinking up themes and posts for the Mofo, but eventually I just end up posting whatever seems to be on my mind at the time.  Today I alphabetized my spice rack, so that explains this post in a nutshell.  Pretty much all spices and herbs are vegan and there are many “meat” blends that make vegetables extra meaty.

I do dig Penzeys, so here’s some of my favorite blends and what to do with them:

Breakfast Sausage Seasoning – Mix into meat substitute or roasted potatoes for an easy breakfast sausage flavor

Chicago Steak Seasoning – sprinkle on and grill portabella mushrooms for an amazing not-a-steak

Italian Sausage Seasoning – Mix into meat substitute or eggplant and add to pasta sauce for a nice fennel sausage taste without the meat and fat

Pizza Seasoning – Similar to the italian sausage seasoning, but added to homemade pizzas or garlic bread adds a nice pizzeria touch

Poultry Seasoning – Instantly livens up vegetable broth into un-chickeny goodness.  Also nice added to mashed or baked potatoes

I just placed an order to restock and I’m trying the berebere and the Bratwurst Sausage Seasonings.  I’ll let you know how they are in later posts.  Penzeys has some brick and mortar stores, but the one in Grand Central closed, and I usually spend enough for free shipping, so on line works great.

The actual spice rack is Elfa from the container store.  I find it flexible and it holds a lot for the space it’s in.  I can move the shelves and half pint mason jars also fit into the small racks.  

Happy Mofo!

Actually if you flatten the balls like the ones in the front you can pass them off as cookies.  So I was going through my “pantry” which is really a closet next to the kitchen stacked with bins that are packed with mason jars which are stuffed with vacuum sealed, non-perishable foodstuffs.  Don’t worry, I am prepared to eat well in case of natural disaster, power-outage, or other armageddon scenarios that would keep me in my apartment.

In the pantry I found some prunes.  I guess I like prunes since I’m the one that bought them and I consider them a healthy snack, but it’s not like I sit around thinking, “oh, I’m totally in the mood for some prunes.”  So here they languish in the pantry discovered only when I dig in to reorganize.  This time I was determined to do something with them so a quick google search led to some options, the easiest being these raw nut balls.  I modified it a bit and ended up with a tasty treat that I think will make a good 11am work snack when I’m usually starving but convinced it’s still too early for lunch.

These were wicked easy and tasty.  I’ll probably try them again with some different combinations.

Coconut prune balls

Balls:
1 cup prunes (soaked 1 hour and drained)
1 cup walnuts (soaked 1 hour and drained)
1/4 cup cranberries (soaked 1 hour and drained)
2 oz dark chocolate finely chopped
1 TBS maca powder (optional)

Coating:
1/2 cup shredded coconut reserved for coating

In a high speed blender or food processor, blend together all balls ingredients except coconut and add a little water or soaking liquid if it’s too stiff.  You want to be able to mold it like cookie dough.

Shape into 1 to 1 1/2 tsp bite sized balls, and roll around in the coconut to coat.  It’s ok if some of the coconut gets mixed in and this makes them even better.  Place on a silpat lined baking sheet and refrigerate until firm.  Store in air-tight mason jars if you have them or a ziplock bag will do.  Even better make into serving sized portions and store in smaller mason jars or snack sized bags.

Enjoy!

Ah.  I can’t resist a Heather’s quote blog post.  Veronica, dinner!

Cappellini pasta pairs perfectly with summer veggies.  Mostly CSA haul: Japanese eggplant, yellow and green pattypan squash, onions, garlic, heirloom tomatoes, basil, olive oil, vegetable paste, and lots of oregano!  

Here’s my latest secret ingredient.  Vegetable paste.  It’s mostly like tomato paste, but also includes assorted vegetables such as celery, carrots, onions, and parsley with a little olive oil, sugar, and salt.  I found it at Chef Central in the gourmet foods section, but you may be able to find it in the normal grocery store with the Italian stuff.

More umami than regular old tomato paste, this amped up paste is really tasty added to vinaigrette and soups.

My recent vegan Ethiopian craving came about when I got Kittee’s zine Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food at Herbivore when I was in Portland.  I met Kittee in real life at the Vida Vegan Con and she is even cooler in person than in the blog-o-sphere!

I made the injera fake-outs which turned out pretty OK despite me having really no idea what I was doing.  Work has been pretty crazy so instead of making the other awesome recipes in the book, I made an ethiopian fake-out salad with Trader Joe’s salsa, avocado, and some berbere seasoning I bought at a spice shop in Grand Central Market.

All this fake-out’in was good, but I needed the real thing.  A quick magical google search for Ethiopian found Lalibela in Mt. Kisco, so I figured why not set-up a meet up? 

We had our meet-up tonight which turned out to be really fun and delicious.

The communal dining experience can be a little weird among relative strangers, but everyone was game and even the initial non-sharers decided to join in the fun.  The dishes are lentils, spicy lentils, split peas, string beans, cabbage, and collard greens.  We also enjoyed some Ethiopian beer and coffee.

Cool off from the sticky summer heat with a duo of cold soups.  The Avocado Cream Soup came from the Practically Raw cookbook and the Gazpacho is the traditional Moosewood version I’ve been making for many years now.  You can start with cold ingredients and it’s ready right away or let it chill in the fridge for a few hours.  

I tried some fancy food styling and that’s supposed to look like a yin yang sign.  Whatever, it was delicious!  I don’t think the V8 juice I used counts as raw, but everything else is raw and mostly came from the CSA this morning.

I’m digging the Practically Raw book by Amber Shea Crawley.  I had made a few things using the oven, but now that I finally broke down and got a n Excalibur Dehydrator, I’m sure I’ll make even more.  

Let’s face it.  Fresh ripe summer tomatoes need bacon.  It doesn’t need to be pig based bacon, but a salty smoky accompaniment is required for summer eatin’.

Steel cut oats bacon – Take 1

Mix together liquid smoke, soy sauce, salt, onion powder, paprika, and water then add the oats.  I used a pint sized wide mouth mason jar with a lid.  Shake it around a bit and let soak until the liquid is absorbed (I left it overnight.)  Stir or shake occasionally to evenly distribute the marinade.  I made this last weekend before my new Excalibur dehydrator arrived (more on that later,) so I dried the mixture in the oven.  Turned it on to around 200 degrees for an hour, then turned it off and let them sit.  They weren’t quite crunchy, so I did the same again – 200 degrees for an hour then turn off.

Not a bad experiment and I used them in chopped salad all week for smoky bacony flavor, but they were still on the chewy side and not quite perfect bacon bits just for snacking.  Also quite tasty on a fBALT sandwich (fake bacon avocado lettuce tomato.)

I’m clearly on a mission to make anything taste like bacon, so I’ll work on it
and keep you posted.
    

Late spring brings fresh rhubarb and bright strawberries to the farmer’s market.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

1 pint fresh strawberries (quartered)
2 stalks fresh rhubarb (about 2 cups chopped)
3/4 cups sugar
2 TBS corn starch

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup almond milk (or any non-diary milk)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Grease a 2 quart baking dish.

Mix together strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, and corn starch and pour into the baking dish.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, flaxseed, baking powder, salt, almond milk, and oil.

Use 2 teaspoons to drop biscuit sized dollops on top, then use spread out gently.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Easier than pie!

Of course it started out rainy; it’s Portland!  Didn’t stop Jodie the Picky Vegan from texting me out of bed to head over to the vegan mini-mall!

We popped into Herbivore first and I choose a bunch of cute recycled purse type things.  I’ve always wanted a seatbelt purse, so this little wristlet in front is perfect (also comes with a long purse strap.)  I skipped the heavy stuff like books, so I can keep my luggage under 50 lbs!

Then we stepped over to Food Fight Grocery.  Even though I didn’t need any actual groceries, it was fun to look around when everything on the shelves is vegan!  I did pick up the cool tote bag and water bottle.

Just down the street a bit is the Hungry Tiger Too cafe.  One side of the menu is all Vegan!

Chicken and Waffles – the chicken is fried tofu and it was surprisingly flavorful with a chewy texture and the waffle was pretty darn perfect, too!

And since I’ve been enjoying the fake cheese and meats a bit to much over the last few days, I thought it was time I had a salad.  The citrus vinaigrette was fresh and light on a dreary day!

Jodi had one of the fancy burgers that was topped with crispy onions – that she loved, something bacony, and bbq sauce.

And when there’s Mac-n-cheese on the menu how can you possibly resist.  Jodi had a good foodie word to describe the sauce at the time, but we can’t remember what it was!  In any case, the garlicky cheesy sauce was bright and zippy!