Three more years of vegan eating... and a bread baking hack.

I'll be the first to admit, I've never been good at following through on personal projects. I'm the type to charge in enthusiastically and then a month later abandon it for something else. Part of that is the ugly side of perfectionism - never wanting to do anything unless it's to be done exactly right.

I've thought about reviving this blog several times, not because I think there's any audience for it except for my family, but because I love food and I like to write. I used to write content for a living, but now that I don't sometimes I need a bit of a word-outlet. So here I am.

There have been a lot of changes in my life in the past three years - mostly positive. But two things haven't changed: still vegan, still spooky.

I could say a lot about the food I've eaten and recipes I've tried in the past three years, but let's start with something recent and summer-relevant. I've learned to make bread in a slow cooker.

Basic Slow Cooker Bread

Ultimately you can probably use any bread recipe in a slow cooker with some experimentation. I learned this trick from other blogs when I was looking for a way to have fresh baked bread in the summer without heating up my entire apartment. Here's what I learned:

• Your bread won't puff up as much as it would in the oven, so expect a slightly wider, flatter loaf.
• Since the bread will rise and bake at the same time, you won't have to let the bread rise before moving to the slow cooker.
• Baking times in slow cookers will vary quite a bit depending on the size of your slow cooker and the size of your loaf.
• You can make fresh bread in your no-AC apartment without dying of heat stroke.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup warm water (130º F)
1 Tbsp. honey or agave
1 1/2 Tbsp. dry yeast
1/2 Tbsp. salt
2 cups all-purpose or white bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup rolled oats (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, combine warm water, salt, honey, and yeast and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Add oats and flour one cup at a time until fully combined. Knead thoroughly.

Line your slow cooker with parchment paper and form dough into a round loaf, or turn into a loaf pan if your slow cooker is large enough. Cover and set your slow cooker to High.

From here your baking time will be a bit of trial and error, but most baking times seem to range from 1 to 2 1/2 hours. For more detailed tips, check out the how-to on The Kitchn!

Thanks for reading my revival post. Stay spooky, friends.

I feel like lately I've been getting stuck in a rut in a lot of different ways - work gets tedious, I never seem to make progress on anything, and I end up eating the same things a lot. I did finally get around to making a new recipe the other day - Gobi Manchurian.

It's an Indo-Chinese recipe featuring battered and fried cauliflower in a tomatoey sauce. I got the recipe from an old issue of VegNews. It came out pretty well - considering I'm a novice at battering-and-frying. And *gasp!* my mother ate it, too!

I also found some vegan zucchini tamales at Whole Foods last week. They're delicious with green chile sauce. Why? Because EVERYTHING is delicious with green chile sauce.

You can sorta almost see my super cute houndstooth skull plates from Target! What would I do without Halloween sales?

We've been growing a basil plant and some tomatoes since June. As a result I've been looking for every possible excuse to eat fresh basil. Pasta with tomato and basil has become one of my default lunches when I can't decide what to eat.

Somewhere in all my still-packed stuff is a book on backyard gardening. Now... as it happens we don't have a back yard, just a porch. (Well, technically there's a pit of rocks that you can walk out into downstairs, but there's not much sunlight.) But I've been checking out a lot of urban gardening blogs and it seems like you can grow almost any vegetable you want in containers. Do I smell a new hobby?

Recipe: New Mexico Green Chile Sauce

So I realized I actually do have a few recipes to share that I've neglected to post here. I keep some of this around AT ALL TIMES and I put it on virtually everything I eat. Everything. To be honest, I have no idea how much oregano and cumin I put in this because I've never actually measured it. This recipe is just my best approximation. I believe I've mentioned before that green chile will cure pretty much any illness (well... maybe not an upset stomach. But it's great for colds, flu, etc.)

My father has the Pasquale's restaurant cookbook, and it turns out their green chile recipe is remarkably similar to mine. (But mine is better than the one in their cookbook, imho.)

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. olive oil (add more if needed)
1/2 a large white or yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 tsp. flour
28-32 oz. chopped New Mexico green chiles*
2 cups vegetable stock
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2-3 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
dash crushed red pepper flakes

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until almost translucent. Add garlic and continue to sauté until golden brown. Add flour and stir for 30 seconds. Add green chile, vegetable stock, salt, oregano, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

*Yes, I DO mean New Mexico green chiles. New Mexico green chiles are a unique variety that aren't grown anywhere else. If you live in the vicinity of New Mexico there's a good chance you can find frozen green chile in your local grocery stores - check Whole Foods if you can't find it elsewhere. The farther you get from New Mexico the harder it is to find, but you CAN get canned green chiles in unexpected places.

Recipe: Not-So-Green Berry Smoothie

This has spinach in it. I swear.

So I don't know about where you guys live, but it's been freaking hot here. It was over 100 every day for about a week. Long story short, I've been making smoothies a lot - especially for a burst of energy before kung fu.

The way I see it, the key to making a really awesome smoothie in the summer is to use frozen fruit. In general, I use room temperature bananas and frozen everything else. This recipe is good for people who want to try making a green smoothie but are squicked out by the color. The key to the deep red color is blackberries. The color is intense enough to overwhelm the green spinach without turning brown.


Ingredients


2-3 huge handfuls of spinach
1 ripe banana
several frozen peach slices
loads and loads of frozen mixed berries (my mix has blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries)
a little bit of your favorite plant milk (vanilla or original flavor, I use coconut milk)
1 or 2 ice cubes

In a blender, add spinach, banana, and peaches. Fill the rest of the blender up with berries. I'm not joking. Add just enough plant milk to get it going. Blend thoroughly, stir if necessary. If it's just too thick and not blending properly, add ice cubes and a little more plant milk.

My smoothie matches my hair!

Recipe: Fettucine with Amazing Veganized Ragu Sauce

No matter what your reasons are for adopting a vegan diet, there are some recipes you don't want to stop eating. This was one of them. My Grandmother Lynn made this recipe for us when I was a kid, and my mother kept making it because we all liked it so much. You have no idea how happy I was that my herbivore version came out so well. In some ways I like this better than the original, which was really greasy.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp olive oil
5 Tbsp vegan butter (non-hydrogenated margarine)
2 Tbsp finely chopped yellow onion
2 Tbsp finely diced carrot
2 Tbsp finely diced celery
12 oz. beef flavor Smart Ground (Gimme Lean works too)
salt
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk*
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
28 oz. canned diced tomatoes
1 lb. package fettucine

Put the olive oil, 3 Tbsp of the butter, and onion into a saucepan over medium high heat and saute until onion has turned a light golden color. Add carrot and celery and continue sauteing until they begin to change color. Add Smart Ground, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add some salt and stir. Add the wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until it has evaporated. Add soy milk and nutmeg and continue to cook, stirring, until most of the milk has evaporated. Add tomatoes and stir, and once they start to bubble, turn heat down very low. Simmer uncovered for at least 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Add a bit more liquid as necessary.

Cook the fettucine in salted water according to package directions. Drain well and melt the remaining butter over the cooked pasta. Stir pasta into the ragu sauce and serve.

*Note! There is a difference between "plain" and "unsweetened" soy milk! Plain has no added flavors but DOES have added sugar. Use unsweetened soy milk for cooking.

Now Playing: D.A.F - Alles ist Gut

Recipe: Tomato Lentil Soup

It's been cold and miserable on and off, so I've been in a soup-making mood. (Also I'm lazy and slightly busy, and soup doesn't take a lot of babysitting.) My mother suggested this recipe, so this isn't my usual lentil soup, but it was delicious. The biggest key to perfect soup is letting it cook for as long as possible to let the flavors mingle.

Ingredients


2 Tbsp. olive oil (you'll probably need to add more later)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 medium stalk celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup dried lentils
4 cups water
4 tsp vegetable bullion
1 tsp dried thyme leaves

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic, and sautee about 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent. Keep an eye on it, if the garlic overcooks it'll get very bitter. Stir in remaining ingredients except tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes at the absolute minimum, 45-60 minutes is best. Add a little more liquid if necessary.

When the lentils and vegetables are tender, add the tomatoes. Simmer uncovered for at least another 15 minutes - 30-45 minutes is best. Remove bay leaf and serve.


Now Playing: The Cure - Lullaby

Recipe: French Bread

This is my favorite quick bread recipe - all it takes is a little kneading, a short time to rise, and you have bread. There are no fancy ingredients or anything like that. Serve with soup or spread with vegan butter, or whatever else you want. This bread is one of the first recipes I ever learned to make, and I still bake it all the time. Be careful about the temperature of the water - if it's too hot, it will kill the yeast. If you don't have a thermometer don't worry too much, just heat it enough that it's warm to the touch, but not hot.

Ingredients


1 1/2 cup warm water (130° F)
1 Tbsp. honey or agave nectar
1 1/2 Tbsp. dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 450° F. In a large mixing bowl, combine water, salt, honey, and yeast. Let stand 5-10 minutes, until the yeast has activated. Add flour and knead lightly until most of the flour has been worked in. Shape into 2 loaves and turn into a baguette pan. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. Make slashes in the top with a knife and spray or brush with salt water. Bake 20 minutes.