Vegan Strawberry Crumb Tart (and. . . under my WIDE brimmed hat in the garden)

This is what you get when you bring home a 2 lb. tray of strawberries and are home alone all week. The strawberries were obviously going to find a home in a smoothie here and there, but not 2 lbs., worth of them. What is marvelous about this delicious, nutty, cinnamon-y treat was the time it took to prepare it. Let's just say, by the time you've read this post, you could have made this already, okay?! I go for simple cooking here lately. And when I glanced in the freezer and saw the almonds and pecans, I thought nothing of throwing them in the food processor with a little vegan butter, some sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and whipping up a nice little mini-tart shell (it took seconds, really!). The aroma from this baking was enough to satisfy my craving for something sweet, baked in quaint little ramekin and out of the oven ready to serve: crunchy, tart, sweet and yummy.  

Strawberries are a fruit favorite of mine going way back. I was the kid who'd order an ice cream sundae, "hold the whip cream. . .more strawberries." However, there's a limit to when I'll consume a strawberry. I won't eat them in the middle of winter unless they've been frozen by me during their peak months of May and June. After that, it's as if the strawberry never existed. (It's the same for tomatoes, though I do allow for some "Italian" canned varieties to enter the home in the dead of winter--a girl's gotta have her vegan lasagna.) We've moved so far off the Eat Seasonally path that I find it disturbing shopping in February and March surrounded by the same produce I saw the previous July. . . in the same places! We are a spoiled, rotten food nation. But that's okay 'cause when I want an avocado, I want an avocado.

Here is the beauty of making this Strawberry Crumb Tart: just put the nuts you have on hand in the dish and you will be fine, trust me. After a few pulses, you'll have this sticky, crumbly mixture--perfect for pressing into the ramekins. Then toss your filling with a bit of sugar, lemon zest and nutmeg, top that with a bit more of the crumb mixture and there you have it! It's delish. Go crazy and mix the strawberries with some blueberries or cherries, it's all good, I promise.

One Hour Bread (if it looks like bread, tastes like bread, then. . . )

This bread recipe works. That's all I have to say on the matter of this loaf. Whether or not you believe truly worthy bread can only be had through a "looong fermentation/resting" period, or from hundred year old sourdough starter, sometimes a girl's gotta have bread. And now, not tomorrow. (I'll be a cast out by the "bread heads" for saying this, but I've yet to have a sourdough starter loaf of bread knock my socks off.) Anyhow, if you feel daring--oh, and pressed for time (and who isn't?)--you will not be sorry you waited til four in the afternoon to decide dinner would be enhanced "if only" you had a fresh loaf of bread you could serve. And here it is. One. Hour. Bread.

Most of the time, I'd classify myself as a "skeptic". This is a family trait. Non trusting. Or better yet, to borrow a phrase, "trust but verify". As skeptics, we get the daily local newspaper in this house--The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for anyone interested. The for real paper--the one we'd be able to read were the world to suddenly not have internet. (Shudder the thought.)

Vegan Quinoa Tacos with Black Beans, Corn and Guacamole (the veggie plot is ready. . . tomatoes beckon, asparagus not so much)

I blame this meal on Hillary. And the media. If I see her one more time ordering "that" food, I swear. Were there moments when I was ready to cave-in, get the car and go forth in dark sunglasses to my favorite lunch spot? Absolutely. But cooler heads prevailed and my own food pantry beckoned, and here's what we had instead. (Let's hope the media can spend the next year and a half focusing on something more relevant than Hillary's attire and sunglasses at a "refueling" stop from her campaign bus.) 

Don't. Get. Me. Started. 

This dinner came together in a snap and was only a two-pan clean-up. I love quinoa. Maybe even more than rice. (I've been known to combine the two!) I've been cooking a lot more lately with grains. Or at least trying to incorporate more of them into our dinners. I would typically go with lentils in my vegan taco dinner--but this proved a very worthy dinner entree. The next day, we had them for lunch--cold. No re-heating necessary. Really good. Tons of protein, fiber and iron. Skip to the bottom for the recipe.

Vegan Eggplant Almond Enchiladas from Moosewood (a puppy drama moment involving chocolate...gaahhhh!)

I swear, if it weren't for the Moosewood cookbooks in my collection, some nights, there'd be no dinner. I mean that literally. When the pull of kitchen apathy strikes, or major puppy trials--I find inspiration in their recipes. These eggplant almond enchiladas have earned a place in our dinner rotation (when I can find a "decent" eggplant in the middle of the country, in the middle of winter/early spring!). Say what you will of the combo eggplant/almonds--it works and it works deliciously. I'll tell you up front, there are a few pots and pans needed to bring this delicacy to the table in all its glory--small price to pay to do this right. You'll make your own enchilada sauce (which is no more than cumin/garlic enhanced diced tomatoes), then there's the toasting of the almonds, and the eggplant filling--which from a "throw together" standpoint is really not that big a deal, I mean you're already in the kitchen, right. Make it worth while and bring your cooking self out. 

Vegan Banana Bread Pudding Crumb Cake that Happened by Accident (eat cake, ice foot, get better. . . a running nemesis strikes and honesty about the past catching up to you)

 

This is a happy accident cake. During our major snow storm this weekend, an incredible urge to bake using bananas overcame me. I have scads of recipes for banana this and banana that--mostly in bread or muffin form. Then there is my other favorite form: cake. I'm a little behind on my recipe "trying"'--that is, I cut recipes out, stuff them in a folder and wait for a moment when I'm not lassoing training a puppy, to try and file them into my very stuffed three-ring binders. Well. Whatever. I just remembered cutting a recipe out, banana something and crumbs were involved. It actually was supposed to be a coffee cake--you know, something you'd have for breakfast. Does this cake here look anything like a coffee cake? My eyes say no. But, my curiosity said, Well, there goes two perfectly over-ripened bananas into a cake that didn't quite come out a cake. . . until my first bite and I was like, whoa--what just happened here? DID I JUST ACCIDENTALLY CREATE A VEGAN BREAD PUDDING. (Which I will admit has been missing from my life since our pre-vegan days. No regrets, just some taste buds that have food pang memories working.) And there it is.  

Pistachio Cardamom Shortbread Cookies (perfectly "crumbly". . . for this winter slump)

Sometimes a really good cookie can rescue me from a really bad day. We woke to bitterly cold winds, temperatures in the single digits--and only expected to climb to the teens--and a layer of new snow on the ground. (At least we don't have a hundred inches of snow, things could be so much worse)--I shouldn't complain. Then there was a rambunctious puppy under foot whose only desire in this world involves chasing, running, and gnawing. Little can be done to keep her "down" and quiet other than wearing her out with games of indoor hide and seek and little short trips outside. I was desperate for a break and thought she would find her chew-bone more exciting than my leg, arm, kneecap or hip--so I began pulling together the ingredients for this amazing shortbread cookie. I love, LOVE, love these.

I whipped these up in no time, before my second cup of coffee, even! They were almost too easy. 

Vegan Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Extra Chocolate Chips (and a smidgen of hazelnut flour I had left over from a "flour-buying" spree: Love. These.)

I took our food pantry completely apart one afternoon. I re-sorted, re-arranged and basically brought some sanity into the kitchen. In my journey to creating a much neater, more organized life, I discovered I had amassed four different flours (aside from your basic all-purpose and bread flour). So really, I had like eight flours on hand (plus two gigantic bags of slivered almonds!) Why? I remember having this really crazy notion in November (when we all have visions of a "Jimmy Stewart" kind of holiday): "Wouldn't it be great to make ALL kinds of cookies this Christmas with ALL kinds of different flours!?" That'd really UP my cookie baking game!. . . And then the really busy time of December and reality of life/puppy raising set in and here I was in January staring at four bags of flours I had no idea what to do with. The hazelnut flour spoke to me the most. I was NOT going to let this bag perish. 

It's Been too Quiet. . . But I Like it That Way (knitting/sewing over food right now and a Frankie moment)

It's difficult blogging during these winter months. So much of what keeps my attention lately has little to do with food, but more to do with keeping busy, not focusing too much on the news and generally taking a hibernation approach to life. This weekend DH and I ventured out "quickly" on a short jaunt that ended up taking up half the day and him saying to me when we got home, "This shopping stuff is exhausting and sucks the life right out of me." Really? Welcome to my world, sweetie. Someone must run the household. Someone else must go to work. I really try not to drag him along when there is shopping to be done, but this go around, he actually wanted to see a gadget "in person" at the Big Electronics store, so I indulged his wish and out the door we went. We wear hats, glasses and plenty of hideaway outer wear to keep most people from approaching us. We wish a sign could dangle from around our necks reading, Caution: Introverts Entering, No Interaction Required! Amazon is our most favorite place to shop, if truth be told. But that requires a delivery person to bound up to our door and creates another whole set of anxiety (aside from the Jehovah people--omg, don't get me started). But I am completely off track in what I was originally going to talk about.

Vegan Spice Cookies with Chocolate and Zesty Citrus Glaze (How the "Problem" of Christmas Gets Solved)

The miracle of Christmas for me isn't what you might imagine it would be. The real miracle is that I make it through the C-R-A-Z-Y. This is my second round of cookie baking. The first round of cookie-palooza went out in boxes and packages. I love doing this and it sort of makes me happy--for a bit. Then there is the second needed push I have for that little extra that I set aside for just us--and when I find it, I know it. I found it in this cookie. For what it's worth, I am thrilled I took a little extra time to "find" just the perfect, newest cookie recipe to try. Thrilled because this cookie--filled with warm cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and then chocolate!, and citrus--met all my criteria for a superb trifecta of delicious and solved the problem of blah-Christmas-cookie-baking doldrums. (And kept me from going nuts chasing a five month old Pyrenees puppy out from under the Christmas tree for the one hundredth time. . .Gahhhh!)  

Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup with Extra Noodles: Hold the Chicken (Windy City for Windy Sisters and. . . Calling Major Tom)

I was fortunate to have not gotten ill on my short trip back home to visit my sister. At least I have that to be thankful for. Who knew you could get the flu AND have the flu shot, too? Why go through the trouble fear and doubt of getting the damn shot if a month and a half later, you're so sick you can barely muster enough strength to roll yourself over in bed. Why?! I'll take my chances! 

So Sunday afternoon, after calling my doc in the morning and demanding asking for some antibiotics, something--anything!, I took every bit of my zapped energy and got the ingredients on the counter, and into the soup pot, simmering. (Because who else is going to cook for us: Frankie?! as DH and I were both feeling the effects of this 'flu-creep" beginning to take its toll.)

My veganized Chicken Noodle Soup sort of came together based upon what I could reach without falling over. So there's a little bit of everything in here. But without it all: the seasonings, garlic, onions, cabbage, mushrooms and barley, I don't think you'd have much of a soup. And when you think about it, the "old school" chicken noodle soup I remember didn't really have too much in it other than LOTS of noodles and a wee-bit of chicken. So. Here's where the beans came in. Then the barley. Then the turmeric added a beautiful, earthy and almost curry-ish-ness to the soup without it turning into curry. The turmeric color added to the soup made it even more delicious in appearance. It's a keeper in terms of soups. We both loved it and better yet, this recipe makes enough for the next night, too. Because seriously, I wasn't cooking much in this condition.

Vegan Jelly Donut Muffins with Multi-Grain Goodness (baking through "Ovenly" while puppy-dancing. . . finally ran a 5k race and I didn't fall: Yay!)

The other day, DH and I were discussing our earliest food memories. Mine centered around my grandmother's homemade grape jelly. DH said one of his were these huge cinnamon twist doughnuts from a local bakery where he grew up. Then I added, Oh yeah, well, we had doughnuts, too--my favorite always had jelly inside and pink icing. Then there was the debate of whether or not having a food memory not tied to a homemade item constituted a food memory. Then we both sat there fighting off the urge to once again abandon all rational thought and have doughnuts for dinner. 

*I seem to have a running theme here lately with the doughnut obsession. I know not where it comes from, I just know that it is. 

After our conversation about doughnuts had run its course, I finally decided to bake something along the lines of said food stuffs, and turned to adapting a recipe for Jelly Doughnut Muffins from Ovenly. (Oh how I wish all cookbooks were this crave-worthy--more in a second on this.) I had some adjustments to make to go vegan with these, plus I wanted to up the health factor a bit--so I subbed in some spelt flour (my all-time favorite multi-grain baking flour hands down--except it usually does better for me when combined with AP flour), and omitted the eggs. . . obviously. Muffins are one of the most forgiving baking items you could manage. As I soon discovered once again during one of my "some-timers" moments.

Spicy Fried Buffalo Cauliflower N' Kale Wraps (The Blurry Puppy. . .PLUS: Cooking from Yotam Ottolenghi's "Plenty More" and etc.)

I can tell you honestly that if you crave drinking buffalo hot sauce straight from the bottle like I do, you will LOVE this wrap (though I don't recommend doing so, nor have I ever personally--but the thought has crossed my mind). In the midst of a mini-cold snap here, we had a hankering for some cold weather food favorites. Dr. Thyme and I went on our first date centered around food and the food of choice (way back before the vegan in us had emerged) was hot and spicy chicken wings. I had claimed I could tolerate any heat--the hotter the better. Spicy/Fried food lover, meet Mr. Fried Cauliflower. No one would be the wiser. And let me tell you, it even crunches like the other. (Only nothing was hurt during the creation of this meal.) I can't take credit for this fried cauliflower anomaly. The first I'd read about "frying" cauliflower was in Alice Water's cookbook, Chez Panisse Vegetables. (Or maybe one of her other cookbooks, but I do know it was Ms. Waters who has enlightened me on the matter of so many other vegetable cooking matters as well.) This recipe and making of this will require a bit of prep, and it is a little messy, but comes together in a jiff, so don't be all, I can't do this recipe with all those bowls and pans and stuff! Uh, yes you can.

Super simple and incredibly filling and tasty. Serve with a side of homemade fries. 

Vegan Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins: Ta-Da! (Skip the trip to DD and just make some of these. . . and "The Puppy Kindergarten Nail-Biter")

I couldn't help myself. I craved the damn doughnuts from "that place". It got so bad we literally almost abandoned all rational thinking and drove there in our PJs last night. That's just crazy. We're old. We could get killed doing something like that at all hours of the night! I woke up this morning and thought about those doughnuts again then threw the gauntlet down on myself at five a.m. (up at the gawdawful hour for what else?--the obvious reason: Puppy Frankenstein demanded it). To hell with it, I'm baking, I thought. So. Happy. I. Did. The Pumpkin Doughnut madness is now tamed and all is right with the world.

 (Yes, I realize this is the second "pumpkin recipe" in a row. I. Love. Pumpkin.)