Vegan Spinach, Tofu, Chard and Herb Pie (Don't Fear the Filo)

Food encased in dough. I'm in. I came across this recipe for Herb Pie in my cookbook, Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamini (one of my most treasured cookbooks) and wanted to re-create his version (omit the cheese, eggs) and still have a delicious dinner with bragging rights. And I think I have. First, a word about my love/hate relationship with filo. It scares me. I could have just as easily substituted this recipe by using a myriad of other options reserved for food filling: the puff pastry, a regular pie pastry, a crumble-topped affair, to name a few. 

Vegan Dill Pickle and Potato Soup (With No Regrets)

It dipped into the forties in the evening this weekend. Potato cravings ensued. I didn't want straight potato soup, mind you--you know the one, leeks etc. I sought a potato and then some. I love it when I can intuit how a soup might come together once I glance at a recipe. Skimming the ingredient list, I set about pulling from the drawers in the fridge and cool storage areas all the food stuff I have on hand to make this soup my own. It's not the prettiest soup on the block, but the pickle part intrigued me the most. It's a Polish soup. Old country as my mother would say. And I love dill pickles--you add them at the end of the cooking so you experience a tart, dilly bite with each spoonful. We loved this soup. So simple. And filling. Both characteristics qualify this soup as an official fall soup festival soup in our house.  

Vegan Banana Bread: Breakfast Ready with Chocolate and Espresso in the Mix! (And Knitting the "Vogue Eyelet Raglan Cardigan" in Pretty Pale Blue for My New Gray Hair!)

I came home with a ginormous bag of bananas from Costco last week and this is what I ended up with: banana bread. Sometimes buying in bulk is necessary. I usually scoff at the purchase of a trunk load of bananas--a buck forty or not, and think, When will we ever eat all of those? Instead, I'll usually bring home a maximum of four bananas a week from the "regular" store because I like to have a half banana before bed (sometimes DH does, too)--and that about does it for us for a week's supply. Well, I had six bananas left in my bag still--and the "spotting" had started. I really wasn't in the mood to bake at all. (Yes, I have non-baking moments.) And yet. The bananas. They mocked me. I hate waste. I could have frozen them for smoothies, I realize. But I've not been in the smoothie mood. So this. So. Glad. I. Baked. Jump to the recipe here.

Peach Praline Pecan Streusel Pie: Serious Pie for Serious Peaches (. . .The Story of My "Fall" and Pictures of Things Outside)

I don't think it'd be a stretch to say I love peaches. Even after the whole peach growing, peach harvesting and peach jam making I did a few weeks back, I'm still bringing home peaches from the store. Just. In. Case. In case of what exactly, I couldn't say. This pie is a bit of a multi-stepper, but in a painless way. You make your pie dough (or godforbid, use store bought if you must), mix up the streusel (storing the extra you'll have for muffins or better yet, another pie!), peel and slice up the peaches, assemble pie, bake, cool and eat. So easy. If you want to skip ahead and not read my story about my falling, that's fine. 

Sabih and Zhough: 'Jerusalem' Cookbook Inspired (And. . . For the Love of Book Fairs and Great Finds)

Sabih was never going to be something I just thought, "Oh, how about Sabih tonight?" Yes, if I'd had the chance to bond further with my Croatian born grandfather, perhaps a food trip or two would have been in order (I happen to know he loved food as much as my father did and as much as I do)--I may have encountered something akin to this dish on one of our excursions. But perhaps not. This is, according to my cookbook Jerusalem, a dish not from Jerusalem, but "developed by Iraqi Jews settling in the 1950s in the city of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv". Who knew? Ottolenghi says this eggplant/pita (yes I made my own spelt pitas to go with this) with yummy filling is "exciting street food". Well, for me, this dish is seasonal and super flavorful and exciting vegan dinner food. Made with eggplants I bought local-- because I can't get an eggplant to grow to save my life--combined with the other components (pictured below) and the husband and I were smitten throughout the entire meal. Here's a link to the full recipe. I added some left over vegan meatballs to this, just in case you wondered what that other non-eggplant looking item on the pita was. They, by the way, made a devilishly good addition to the sabih. In most instances the dish is served with hard boiled eggs. 

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (My Midlife Baking Healthier, Eating Happier--with Less Sugar AND Less Gluten Shift)

I've been experimenting with gluten free baking for the past year now. Honestly, who hasn't? I have had some terrific results. I've also had some sad disasters. A health concern recently triggered a demand for me to cut back on foods on the upper register of the glycemic index. More on this in a moment. Meantime, desperate for a little sweet, a little "bread" with my morning GF oatmeal, I came up with these gems. Sweet potatoes are a favorite of mine. I haven't met a woman who doesn't love them. Trying to get my husband to eat one is like pulling teeth. He's, to be polite, not a fan. However, carefully disguised in food stuffs, they pass. I have read the sweet potato is a sort of "wonder food" for women who are losing their minds. . . I mean estrogen levels. More sweet potatoes for me please! I wanted a moist muffin that could hold up to my ritual of slightly re-heating and then dabbing with a bit of Earth Balance margarine. And then, of course, I needed chocolate. The list of ingredients is fairly long for these, but don't be put off buy this--they are worth it. Easy to whip up though. Plus, in the end, my blood sugar thanked me. These were completely worth the trial and error it took to get here. 

Vegan Semolina, Coconut and Orange Marmalade Cake with Chocolate Ganache (And. . . my first peach harvest that almost "wasn't")

I've had my eye on this cake for quite some time. But I needed two things to make it happen: sunflower oil and orange marmalade. I have both now. And the cake was completely worth the wait. The original recipe is from the cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottogenghi and Sami Tamimi. I had a bigger than usual vegan challenge in adapting this recipe as it calls for four eggs! But this cake was happening regardless. The chocolate part is completely optional. Honestly, I wasn't going the chocolate ganache route until DH said, You ARE going to add chocolate to this, right?

The thing that I had trouble with in making this was achieving that little "bump" down the middle typical in loaf cakes. Or the crack on top where the syrup goes. When the baking time came to an end and I had no "bump" on top of my cakes, I was a bit crestfallen to tell the truth. I had my hopes set on this little feature. Could be my baking powder's time had run out, or something was wrong with my egg replacer (which is what I opted using for the eggs in the recipe vs. a flax and water mix or some other iteration of vegan egg helper). Truth be told, the lack of this little feature did not harm the cake's end result in the least little bit. Nada. So this past week, husband and I have enjoyed splitting a slice of this cake as an after dinner treat. It's loaded with flavor. Topped after just coming from the oven with orange flavored sugar syrup, there is really no need for more than a small piece. You will feel the love of this cake in one bite size and be satisfied. Trust me. Which is why I love it so much.   

I haven't told you about my peach tree yet. I'll try to make this short. Three years ago I brought home three fruit trees: a peach tree, apricot tree and pear tree. We planted them in our back yard (un-fenced area) and waited. 

Vegan Dark Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (Special Occasion Optional)

Chocolate as an afterthought. I baked this cake around four yesterday afternoon. I had only one kind of chocolate on hand, Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa. On the back of the box is a recipe for their Especially Dark Cake, but not a vegan version. I took matters into my own hands and made necessary changes (quite on the fly, I might add, but vegan "challenges" cannot and should not get in the way of a woman's chocolate cravings). 

Smoky Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad with Fresh Basil (Plus: It-Took-Me-Two-Nights Crocheted Farmers Market Bag)

If I get to a point where the dish rack has to be relocated to accommodate tomatoes on the kitchen counter, then this happens. I guess I could have made salsa, but that's usually what I want to do come September when the prospect of losing my plants to an early frost (and visions of us starving during a cold winter) sets in. 

Does the world need another pasta salad recipe? I think yes! I have a trick to making a dizzying good pasta salad, I always add a squeeze or two of Dijon mustard and tomato paste to the mix. I love Dijon mustard. Any interpretation of "pasta salad" works--to me, it's all in the dressing. And based upon your own particular preference, adding more acid to the salad or more oil is completely fine. Just taste as you make.

Canning: Homemade Chocolate Cherry Preserves (And Summer Reading List Part Two)

I never saw my grandmother canning with chocolate. Grapes? Yes. Chocolate? No. If you're thinking OMG, this sounds crazy good. It is. Trust me. What else does one do when it's a hundred degrees outside? Why can, of course!

Vegan Blueberry Abundance Pie (Knitting Times Three, Sewing Lap Duvets and Waiting for My First Tomato!)

I have a thing for pie. I've thought about opening a shop for yarn and pies. But then I'd never want to come home, and that could be a problem. This weekend I made what I thought was a fairly "large" pie--five cups of blueberries! The pie is gone as of this morning around ten when I lost all self control. 

I have an urge to make another of the exact proportion. 

Vegan Espresso Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chunk Crumble (My Own "Tara" and Why Gone with the Wind. . . Finally!)

Lordy, how long's it been since I last baked a cake for crying out loud?! My cake cravings kicked into high gear late yesterday afternoon. (So getting dinner finished sort of took a back seat. Sorry, honey.) Chocolate AND espresso are mandatory items to have on hand if you are to truly enjoy the finer points of what makes this coffee cake--well, a coffee cake.  

Mejadra (from Jerusalem: A Cookbook)

I guess my love of onions--fried, thank you, is what brought me to this dish. The basic components of the meal are lentils and rice. Don't underestimate what you can do with these two mandatory vegan kitchen ingredients. Paired with coriander seed, cumin seed, cinnamon, allspice and turmeric--and what you have is an incredibly flavorful dinner. 

I had no idea how much I missed fried onions. I was scooping up handfuls of the things as they came out of the pot faster than I could make them, then cursing myself for doing so because this just meant my cooking time kept getting extended.