Fast Food

Okay, so not like drive-thru fast ... but heat-it-up-in-five-minutes-or-less fast. That's what I've been eating since Tuesday night — whatever I can throw together with minimal time and effort. Tuesday night, I steamed some frozen Kimchee Dumplings with a Cabbage-Squash Stir-fry:

The dumplings were fantastic! Poopie Bitch and I picked up a few bags on a recent run to the massive Asian/Mexican market on Winchester. For the sauce, I combined some hoisin, soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and sesame oil. And the stir-fry was a quick way to use up some squash that would have gone bad soon.

Why am I not slaving over a hot stove these days? Because I'm moving, that's why. I've been packing for days! Ick! And I'll be officially in the new place by Sunday! Yea!

The downside to this (besides moving against my will) is that I will not have internet service for a few days. This could be my last post for a week or so, but I'll have Internet here through Saturday, so if I eat something really tasty, I'll let you know.

Oh, and I'm also skipping Iron Cupcake this month since many of my baking supplies are packed away. But check out Amanda's cupcakes on Walking the Vegan Line. This girl BRAVED HURRICANE IKE TO MAKE CUPCAKES! That's a cupcake hero, my friends...a true cupcake hero.

Pumpkin Time!

In honor of Monday's Fall Equinox, also known as Mabon, I ate a crap load of pumpkin. I began the day with this yummy Pumpkin Sausage from Have Cake, Will Travel:

Dude, check out my cool raven plates from Target's Halloween collection?!

I first saw the sausage on Celine's blog a few weeks ago and made a mental note that I MUST try it soon. All I can say, is, um, WOW! I hear it's a little like the famous Seitan O' Greatness recipe that floating around the vegan blogsphere. But I've never made that, so I don't know. To me, it tasted (and felt like) a cross between Julie Hasson's sausages and a Tofurkey. In fact, I may even make this in place a Tofurkey this year for Thanksgiving ... maybe.

For breakfast, I sliced the sausage log, pan-fried it, and served it with doused in maple syrup alongside some of my Cinnamon Pecan Waffles (the recipe is going in my cookbook):

For dinner last night, I chopped up some more sausage to make the Punk-Kin Pasta from La Dolce Vegan:

This is definitely my very favorite recipe from Sarah Kramer's third book. I only allow myself to make it in the fall and winter though ... pumpkin season and never a day earlier. Basically, it's canned pumpkin, pumpkin sausage (but you can use Gimme Lean or even veggie burger), whole wheat rotini, garlic (which I used in place of onions because I was out of onions), veggie broth, salt, and pepper. Super simple, super tasty. Oh, and I topped it with shredded Teese before eating it.

Now if only I could get as excited about packing as I am about pumpkin...

Double Birthday!

First of all, Happy Autumn Equinox! I'll have lovely seasonal foods to share with ya'll in tomorrow's post. But tonight, I have something special to share with you! Poopie Bitch's Ginger-Macadamia-Coconut-Carrot Birthday Cake from Vegan with a Vengeance:

Last night, my friends and I celebrated two birthdays — Leslie, who drove all the way from Asheville, North Carolina for her party, turned 21 and Pat, an old-school vegan buddy, turned 50-something. Honestly, I don't know 50-what because he wouldn't tell us. Here's the birthday folks, smiling after a big slice of Poopie's yummy cake!

Leslie and Pat

Poopie (who has a blog here) is a professional vegan cake decorator, hence the lovely cake above. But she also loves to cook savory dishes too. She catered the whole party (which we held at our friend Vaughan's house), and the food was DEE-LICOUS!

Chef Poopie Bitch (a.k.a. Stephanie)

For starters, she made this tasty Walnut-Mushroom Pate with Crostini:

And then, we dug into this Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Carmelized Onion and Sage Crumb Topping from the Veganomicon:


This was the first time I've tried this dish, and wow! The cashew cream really makes it somethin' special. PB picked the perfect dish for kicking off the fall season.

We also munched on PB's green beans, which she picked up at the Memphis Farmer's Market the day before:

All in all, we had a great time! After pigging out, Leslie helped me finish shelling the lima beans that I've been working on. And then we had a poetry reading and watched a slideshow of old pics of us goofing off in crazy costumes (which we do as often as possible)!

Quesadillas and Lima Beans

I know, weird combination ... but I didn't eat them together. In fact, I haven't eaten any of the lima beans yet. On Tuesday morning before work, I picked one-fourth of a bushel of organic limas at the pick-your-own Windmere Farms in Raleigh. Damn, that's a lot of work! But here are the fruits of my labor:

It took about an hour and a half to fill up my small basket. And then the suckers had to be shelled. I'm still working on that, but I've shelled (and frozen for the winter) about half my haul. I plan to finish up shelling on Saturday morning.

Tonight, I whipped up some "Chicken" Queso-Less Dillas (that's what I like to call vegan quesadillas):

I sauteed some Morningstar Farms faux chicken strips with a mixture of water, nooch, soy sauce, chili powder, and garlic. Then I spread that over a whole wheat spinach tortilla, along with some salsa and shredded Teese. I topped the tortilla with another tortilla and heated it up in a dry skillet for a few minutes.

Yum! Melty, Teesy goodness! Unfortunately, my neighbor's water pipe broke this afternoon and the utility company shut my water off. Since the place is being foreclosed, our rental company won't fix anything, so now we're trying to figure out how to get his pipe fixed and our water back on. That meant I couldn't wash my Teesy, nasty dishes tonight. Nor can I shower. Ick.

UPDATE (9/19/08): My neighbor Wes called me to tell me the water has been repaired! Yea!

Take That McDonald's!

I try to avoid McDonald's. They put beef fat in their fries, and the only vegan food on the menu (the baked apple pies...yup, they're vegan) has 5 grams of trans fat per serving! But I occasionally stop in for an iced coffee with no cream when I'm on the road with no Starbucks in sight. The last time I made such a pit stop, I noticed the giant "Southern Chicken Biscuit" sign in the window.

And that inspired me to create this Tofu "Chicken" Biscuit:

I used the Southern Fried Tofu Chicken recipe that I'll be including in my cookbook, as well as my own recipe for flaky Buttermilk Biscuits. For some reason, I felt like the sandwich needed a little mustard too.

Wow, was this delish! I'll definitely be including this as a serving suggestion for the Southern Fried Tofu Chicken in my cookbook.

On the side, I had Fried Corn and a Side Salad:

The fried corn isn't really fried, but that' s what my mom calls it. You do cook it in a skillet, but there's no hot oil involved...just a little soy margarine.

"Fried" Corn
----------------
4 ears corn, cut off the cob
1 cup soymilk
2 Tbsp. soy margarine
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. flour

Combine the corn, soymilk, margarine, sugar, and salt in a skillet and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Slowly stir in the flour, and continue cooking for 10 to 15 more minutes or until corn is soft and liquid is absorbed.

Eggplant Tagine

The weekend before last, my Granny and I snatched a few Japanese eggplants out of her neighbor's garden when they weren't home. They probably wouldn't have cared, but it was fun pretending to sneak around. The eggplants have been sitting in my fridge ever since...waiting on a recipe to come my way.

That is, until last night when I made this Double Coriander Eggplant Tagine from the latest issue of Vegetarian Times:

Tagine is a traditional Moraccan stew that's slow-cooked for hours in a special pot. The tagine recipes in Veg Times, however, are made in 30 minutes. That's because the slow-simmering part is only necessary to cook the meat found in a traditional tagine.

This dish called for canned tomatoes (I used Granny's home-canned ones), onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, and cilantro. Served over whole wheat couscous, it was spicy and delightful! The only problem — I HATE eggplant skin. And even though I usually peel it off, I didn't this time because I thought it'd look prettier with the skin on.

It's sad when you're more concerned with how your food will look on your blog than how it will taste. I ended up picking all the skin off when I ate it.

Cupcakes and a Cute Puppy!

Today is my friend Misti's 33rd birthday. She'll probably hate me for putting her age out there like that, but it's too late. Anyway, I never let a birthday pass without cupcakes! So I whipped up these Vanilla Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:

Honestly, the orange buttercream didn't taste very orange-y. It calls for two tablespoons of orange juice, but no extract. And that would have helped, but I didn't have any on hand. It actually tasted like lemon buttercream, likely due to the tablespoon of lemon zest in the recipe. Either way, they were super good. The vanilla cupcakes never disappoint.

Oh, and I also promised a cute puppy. Here's Misti's dog Bailey sporting my new vintage 80s sunglasses with cool squiggly shapes on the lenses (which you can't really see because of the flash):

Bailey is an awesome dog. She's sweet and she follows me around my house when I dog sit ... but she does have an overactive bladder. She pees a little when she gets excited. But don't we all?

Oh, and thanks for all the nice words about my moving/foreclosure situation. It sucks, but all your sweet comments make the process more bearable.