Oh, hello.

::Waves hello::

Hey there. Long time no see. I've been so busy these last few months that I haven't had much time to cook or blog. I've had my hands full with school and work. Any recipes that I make are tester recipes or things I've already posted on here.

That will be changing soon though because I graduate from college in 5 days!! I've also been hanging out with people more often lately and trying to make dessert to bring over when I hang out. I make all kinds of desserts so that I can have a little bit and be able to share the rest. This is something I really like because I've been eating much better the past few months and have managed to lose just about 15 pounds. So making and eating a dozen cookies just isn't going to fly with me. Today I made some and ate 2 or 3 and was totally satisfied with that and was glad to see the rest get eaten (even though a bunch of them got burnt!).

So, yes, I will start blogging again! I'll try to put in calorie counts where I can since I try to figure out the calories in everything I eat before I eat it.

Apples!

Told you there would be more apple posts.  I've made three apple crisps already, and last weekend I decided to mix things up a bit and make a pie.  I've made the Gingerbread Apple Pie from VwaV before, but I've never eaten it.  I had made it for a contest a few years back, so I couldn't try it before I submitted it.  It did win an honorable mention, though!

If you're scared of making pies, this one is for you.  You don't need to be all fancy and roll out your dough.  You just mix the ingredients, smush most of it into the bottom of the pan and crumble the rest on top.

See?  It doesn't have to look perfect or anything.  I love this pie because it has two different flavors which work so well with each other.  If you noticed that in that last picture the pie is on a cookie sheet, you should do the same thing.  Mine got really bubbly and spilled all over the sheet.  So it was much easier to clean that up than to clean out the whole oven.

This recipe calls for 2 pounds of granny smith apples, and says that it's about 8 apples.  I found this WAY off.  I used two or three cortlands and it was more than enough.  As you can see, it was piled very high.  It did cook down a lot though, yet still was high for a pie.

Someone over at SparkPeople was nice enough to post this recipe and get nutrition information.  So if you want to know how many calories are in this recipe, then be my guest.  I took a peak just now, and  they calculated this as 12 slices.  Yeah, okay.  I got 8 out of this, and ate about 5 or 6 of the slices.  No wonder I've gained at least 5 pounds since the beginning of September.

Gingerbread Apple Pie

Ingredients

Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup Earth Balance, softened
1 tablespoon molasses
2 tablespoon cold water

Filling:

2 pounds Granny Smith apples (about 8), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch ground cloves
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch  

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Make the crust:
Sift together the flour, sugar, spices, salt, and baking powder. Add the margarine one tablespoonful at a time and cut in with a pastry cutter, knife or your fingertips. Drizzle the molasses and water over the dough, mixing with your fingertips until the crumbs of dough begin to cling together. Set aside 1/2 cup of the dough. Gather together the rest of the dough and knead it into a ball. Press it evenly into the bottom and sides of a pie pan and bake for 10 minutes.

Make the filling:
While the crust bakes, combine in a mixing bowl all the filling ingredients except the arrowroot powder (or cornstarch). Sprinkle the arrowroot powder over the apple mixture and mix until the starch is dissolved.

Assemble the pie:
Fill the pie crust with the apple mixture, and crumble the remaining 1/2 cup of dough over the filling. Cover with foil and bake for 20 more minutes. Remove the foil and bake 30 minutes more; the filling should be bubbling and the apples should be tender. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 8 - 12. Nutrition count is for 12 servings.

Testing, Testing

I've been testing for Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming weight-lossy book, and it's awesome. I passed on testing for Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar because I couldn't justify making and eating dozens of cookies. And let's face it, I would have eaten most of them. I can't share them at school because everyone I know is a nutrition major, and I couldn't share them at work because I work at Jenny Craig. Neither are exactly good places to share junk food.

There are some really delicious recipes being formulated, so definitely pick up this book whenever it comes out. You'll need it after all the cookies you'll make!

Caulipots, along with a Tofurkey sausage


Low Fat Dill Hummus


To tide you over for now, Isa posted a recipe on her blog for Spinach Linguine with Edamame Pesto. I'll post it here for you too if you are too lazy to click the link.

Spinach Linguine With Edamame Pesto
Serves 4

For the edamame pesto:
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup packed basil leaves
Handful (1/4 cup or so) fresh cilantro
14 oz package shelled edamame, thawed
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
optional: 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

For the pasta:
10 oz spinach linguine or other pasta

1 teaspoon olive oil
Small red onion, in thinly sliced half moons
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
Extra basil for garnish

Cooking spray

Put on a pot of salted water to boil. Then prepare the pesto:

Place garlic and basil in food processor and pulse a few times to get it chopped up. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until relatively smooth, scraping down the sides with a spatula to make sure you get everything. Add a little more vegetable broth if it seems too stiff. Set aside until ready to use.

Preheat a large pan over medium heat. At this point your pasta water should be ready, so add the linguine.

Saute onion in oil for about 5 minutes. Use a little cooking spray as needed, or a splash of water if you prefer. Mix in mushrooms, garlic, thyme and salt. Cover pot and cook 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

The pasta should be ready now, so drain it.

When the mushrooms have cooked down, add pasta to the pan, along with the pesto. Use a pasta spoon to stir and coat the linguine. Get everything good and mixed and the pesto heated through, about 3 minutes. The pesto should be relatively thick, but if it’s too thick (not spreading out and coating the pasta) add a few tablespoons of water. Taste for salt.

Serve immediately, garnished with a little fresh chopped basil.

Apple Crisp

Due to my overabundance of apples, I have made two apple crisps within the past week or so. Luckily I have friends who enjoy my baking so I didn't end up eating it all myself. For both batches, I used different kinds of apples. Cortlands are the best kind of apple for baking because they keep their shape very well and don't turn to mush. You can add different kinds with it to mix up the flavor a bit. The first one was a mix of Cortland, Ginger Gold and Honeycrisp. I'm not quite sure what the second one was a mixture of.



The recipe I use is the one from the recipe section over at The PPK.

Apple Crisp

9 x 13 baking dish (preferably glass)

Ingredients
For the filling
4 lbs apples
1/2 cup light brown sugar (I sprinkled only a little bit instead of using this much)
1/2 cup sugar (I also sprinkled only a little of this sugar)
1/2 cup apple juice or water (I used apple cider)
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder or cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves (Skipped these)


For the topping
1 cup quick cooking oats (not instant)
1 cup flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup canola oil
3 tablespoon soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F

Peel, core and thinly slice apples. Dissolve the arrowroot in the apple juice or water. Set aside.

Place apples and raisins in the baking dish, add sugars and spices and combine everything well (you may need to use your hands to do this). Pour arrowroot mixture over everything.

To prepare the topping, in a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add oil, soymilk, and vanilla, mix well. Crumble topping over the apples. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Muffins!

I. Love. Muffins. I could eat half a dozen muffins in a day and still want to eat more. (Okay, I may have done it in the past). They are ridiculously easy to make, and there are so many varieties to choose from. I always have all the ingredients on hand to make at least one kind of them.

The other day I decided that I REALLY wanted pumpkin muffins. The ones from Vegan with a Vengeance are really the best pumpkin muffins, hence their name. I grabbed the huge can of pumpkin I had on the top shelf of my cabinet only to discover that I had expired early last year. I didn’t even realize it had been there that long. If it had expired early this year I probably would have used it still, but it was just there for too long.

Despite not having any pumpkin in the house or the will to go to the store to get more (and I only live about 2 minutes – walking – away from a grocery store), I still wanted muffins. I was flipping through the muffin section to figure out what kind I could make with the ingredients I had. I realized I had frozen cherries from Trader Joe’s that I’ve been meaning to use. I also remembered I had some slivered almonds that I had bought for VCon Caesar dressing. So, I ended up making the Cherry Almond muffins. I’ve never made this recipe before, and I’m not sure if I will again. It’s not bad or anything! I’m just not a big fan of nuts in my muffins. I hate banana nut muffins because of the walnuts in them. I thought I had used a lot of cherries for these, but after eating a few of the muffins I noticed that some bites were super cherry-y, while others were all muffin/nut and no cherry. I also didn’t have any of the soy yogurt that it calls for, so I added extra soy milk. I think the yogurt would have helped it to be a lot moister in the end.

Halloweeny

I love Halloween. It's just such a fun holiday where you don't have to worry about sending cards or making phone calls to distant relatives to keep on their good side. You can dress up as absolutely anything you want to, no matter how ridiculous or offensive. You can have a themed party! One of the main things I want to do when I move out of my parents house is have theme parties.

Jess Sconed is always doing cool theme-y things, and it makes me totally jealous. This weekend is Fakin' Fest, which is a "celebration of vegan bacon and bacon-flavored things." How about Vegan Prom? And a LOST season premiere?

Anyway, enough about Jess, EVEN THOUGH SHE IS THE COOLEST EVER.

If I could throw a Halloween party right now, I would. I can't, however, since I live in a trailer with my parents that can only fit a few people at a time (comfortably) and I have old neighbors and not much extra parking and it's a month from Halloween anyway and no one is even ready for it to be Fall nevermind Halloween which is only one day away from November which means it's going to start snowing pretty soon and we'll get heavy snow at 2 in the afternoon and everyone will leave work early which will cause major traffic jams in the city which means you're not getting home until 5 or 6 anyway so you should have just stayed at work, assholes.

These are just some cool ideas I've come across for parties that I would be into. I would call everything "spooky" whatevers, like Spooky Spice Cake. But I wouldn't tell my boyfriend they were called that because apparently he hates the word spooky! I had no idea until a few days ago, but I will respect his wishes because he respects my wish to never utter the word "panties" in my presence.

Frozen Ice Hands

• Using clean, non-powdered and non-latex gloves, fill them with water or the punch you will be serving (can also use a complimentary juice, don’t use an alcoholic mix since it may not freeze properly). Tie them off tightly with an elastic band so no water will leak out.
• Lay the gloves on a cookie sheet and freeze. Do this the night before the party. Once frozen solid, cut the glove off and place in the punch bowl.
• Make at least two so you have a fresh one to add as the first one melts.

Puke Pumpkins

No matter how many of these I see, I always love them!

Vampire Fangs in Blood

Just don't use Red Delicious apples, because they are the worse apple ever.

All kinds of fancy drinks

Not too many, though!

Vegan caramel apples

That recipe looks awesome

Plus a million other things that I'm too tired to look for right now.

VeganMoFo is here!

Today is October 1st, which means it's the first day of VeganMoFo! This is the third year of the mofo.

I've been crazy busy these past few weeks because I've been working my regular job, started school and started an additional job. I LOVE my second job. I work at a family farm that has raspberries, blueberries, peaches, pumpkins and APPLES! I have access to free, freshly picked apples four days a week, and it is the best thing ever. Even if I had to pay for them, all apples, no matter what variety, are only $1.29 per pound. A lot of people complain about it (people complain about everything!), but I was at the grocery store and Honeycrisp apples are over $3.00 per pound. And the ones in the grocery store are shipped from who knows where.

Expect to see many apple posts this month. I have so many apples that I don't have room for them.