My Mother's Stuffing Recipe: Gratitude Entry Number 328

Today, I went for a run while DH hiked. We each had a dog in hand. 

Nary a soul on the trail. 

It was heaven. 

Solitude. 

Cool day, crisp breeze off the Mississippi River. 

I logged three and a half miles. Frankie lead the whole way. 

She's now sixteen months old. 

Such a big girl. 

Vegan Icelandic Coffee Wreath (because it's time for a little less talking and a little more baking)

I have a great need to be in the kitchen. Baking calms me. It makes getting through the news, the oncoming winter and the holidays bearable. I have to keep busy. Following recipes and pinching and folding dough as in this recipe--it's like meditation. Yesterday I baked cookies. Last week, it was this coffee cake. People can be cruel, life can be dreadfully challenging, heartbreaking and sad, but coping by baking--I don't know why, it seems like the right thing to do now. It won't cure the ills of society, but it fills my soul and gives me perspective on life and simply getting through one day at a time, sharing food to show love--this works for me. You can mix the dough for this pastry in about five minutes before you go to bed. The next morning, you'll need about ten minutes to pull the dough from the fridge, combine the filling and roll the wreath. Let it proof for about 45 minutes while the oven preheats and viola: coffee cake. There is literally nothing in the world I love more with my espresso in the morning than this. I have to keep my paws off it all day long while it sits under the cake keeper on the kitchen counter mocking me. This confection always impresses the husband. 

(Let's be honest, it'll impress anyone.)

The aroma of almond, citrus with cinnamon and nutmeg lingers in the house for about two days after it's been baked. 

Our home smells like early winter mornings when we have this on hand, and I love it.  

Vegan Potato Kale Cauliflower Soup with Bernard Clayton's Dinner Rolls (let me catch you up on what's happened. . .)

It's soup season. I could eat it year round, but soup's appeal really begins to nestle in my bones around late October and runs all the way through til April. I blame this soup on my sister. She visited last week, and during one of our many "excursions" around town--(and there were many), we stopped in at Foundation Grounds Coffee in Maplewood, Missouri. They have vegan options on their menu! Yay! I had a bowl of their potato kale soup--a very restorative and nourishing break, with a cup of their hot chocolate. So. Good. I couldn't get the soup out of my mind and my food memory backlash wouldn't let go. So here I was yesterday afternoon trying my hand at the same soup, only this time, going into our garden for fresh kale, tossing in some cauliflower we had on hand and aromatics of onion and garlic for good measure. In total this soup has six ingredients give or take. The hands on time is minimal for such a ridiculously good soup. So simple. I needed simple as I am experiencing my first full-on cold. Or maybe it's a light case of flu. Whatever I have, it's rendered me light headed and low-energy. So soup making was something I could handle. Well, and then I craved bread. 

 Never one to ever, ever serve a bowl of soup without crusty rolls or a loaf of bread, I opted for one of my old time favorites: I whipped up a batch of Dinner Rolls from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Small Breads. Love this cookbook. 

When I bake these, I modify the recipe quite a bit to my vegan/whole grain style of baking.  

If you'd like to make these rolls with less "hands-on" time, place all the ingredients in a bread machine. It's much quicker. I make these at least once a week.

They bake up superbly, crusty and are pure heaven. Freeze the left over rolls for the next night.

 (*My god it's taken me an hour to write this first paragraph, cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle.) 

Vegan Pumpkin Spice Brownies (and why I run. . . with Frankie)

The pumpkin craving kicked in and I began a search for what I'd bake. Not that there isn't a billion options with regard to pumpkin. I have pumpkin recipes galore within the hundreds of cookbooks scattered around this house to last me the full month of October and then some. Thumbing through the stacks yesterday, I was sure of one thing, the cinnamon and ginger were coming off the spice racks. Finally. 

I have old recipes cut from magazines stuffed in files as well. Add an internet search on top and I became a "frenzied overwhelmed baker"! 

I finally settled on my direction and ingredients. 

I would go "brownie" with my pumpkin. 

Vegan Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Rosemary Pecan Cookies (September flew by. . .Milestones and Knitting Markers)

I bake a batch of these rosemary cookies at least once a month--when I remember to trim my rosemary. The cookies are delicious, aromatic and, of course, filled with chocolate. Lately it's been all I can do to keep up with my garden. The late summer heat wreaked havoc on everything from the tomatoes, to the lawn to even the oregano--which tolerates everything. While I was doing some container plant housekeeping I discovered hidden underneath some erstwhile yellow pear tomato plants a little bush of rosemary I had tucked into a container as companion plant with thyme and lemon balm. After trimming back the vines, here was this gorgeous, full rosemary plant flourishing. I pinched off a stem and inhaled the piney aroma. I had to bake something with this now. 

Late Summer Reflection

This morning I woke at five a.m. Never happy to be so rudely introduced to a new day, I obliged my body's biological demands (as many women my age do on any given morning), deciding going back to sleep would render me useless. I'd be a wreck the rest of the day for having squandered a perfectly good morning on trying to catch a few extra winks. I love my sleep and am an early-to-bed-girl. 

Mornings are me time. Ever so quietly, I read, I write, I read some more. It was quite beautiful this morning. The full moon was peeking out from behind the clouds in the west, and the sun was barely beginning to rise in the east. I try to keep as quiet as possible for fear of waking the sleeping dogs: 

Let sleeping dogs lie--I remained true.

Vegan Peach Cobbler with Crunchy Muesli Topping (revamped from the Amish. . . and my new "coloring book" obsession)

 I had two bowls of this peach cobbler last night. First bowl was my test picture (does that one count)? I HAD to eat it or the ice cream would have gone to waste. Second bowl was right before bed. No regrets. I have to tell you peaches are one of my most favorite fruits. When this time of year rolls around and my kitchen counters and fridge are full of summer veggies and stone fruits, I am in heaven. Cobblers are one of those desserts that even a non-baker can master. Using an old passed down recipe from my mother's cookbook collection, this cobbler came together in a snap. 

It's ridiculously simple: eight ingredients. No stand mixer required. 

Vegan Buffalo Chik'n Chickpea Salad with Fresh Peaches (from the sewing room. . .with love, Frankie)

This dinner salad is quick, cool, yummy, satisfying and PERFECT for when it's Hot as Hades like it's been here in Missouri. And folks, it's been that way for a looong time now. I am no fan. 

It's a good thing I love salads for dinner and would eat them every night if I could. 

What attracted me to the recipe I riffed on was the inclusion of peaches.

 Peaches and Dinner=Love. 

Vegan Summer Heirloom Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter (. . . feeding my "inner fashionista" hand sewing Alabama Chanin and joining Sew-a-longs)

The tomatoes have been piling up here. I had to do something. So I did Italian of course. Not that I needed a recipe to create a perfect fresh tomato sauce with pasta dinner. I didn't. But I believe anything Italian made well can be made even better with little pearls of wisdom from Marcella Hazan. Made with 2 lbs. of heirloom tomatoes, a half stick of vegan butter, an onion (peeled and cut into quarters), five cloves of garlic and cooked this according to Marcella at "a very slow but steady simmer for 45 minutes . . . until the fat floats from from the tomato". Her basic sauce omits the garlic and I can appreciate that option. But as far as I'm concerned, it's not really edible Italian Sauce without the garlic. I tasted the sauce while it was simmering without the garlic, it was "okay". As the sauce simmered, I thought it needed some umph: so I also added a fresh zucchini, a carrot, some celery and a can of garbanzo beans. This was a scrumptious meal. 

And an even better leftover the next night. 

I also added fresh basil and oregano from the garden, too--but toward the end of cooking. 

Finally, I hit it with some balsamic vinegar. Perfecto!

Vegan Texas Sheet Cake for Two (eat chocolate: feel better. . . and Frankie's first year)

Well. I needed chocolate. You know how when you usually bake a Texas Sheet Cake, you're obliged to bake with an overly large thirteen inch cake pan--with a TON of leftover cake mocking you the rest of the week? (Nibbling away here and there until five more pounds creep up on you? Seriously, now that I'm in the "over fifty" range--if I look at a cake, I can feel my thighs growing.) Not so with this cake. It takes a six-inch round springform pan, less temptation--more reason to love, and viola: cake for two! Perhaps a more appropriate name for it would be: Rhode Island Chocolate Sheet Cake. (Okay, I have dibs on this name for my future restaurant.)

 It's delicious, moist, chocolate-y, nutty and cinnamon-y. Pure delish. Serve it with some vegan ice cream and really get your dessert fix on. But not five pounds worth, 'kay?

I found a wonderful little baking book: Dessert for Two by Christina Lane in the book store quite by accident a few weeks back (or maybe the book found me). Although not vegan in its design, you know I've never met a non-vegan recipe I couldn't veganize--I'll be busy baking from this book for 

awhile. 

Roasted Corn, Avocado and Black Bean Salad (A Yankee as "Miss Maudie" reading . . . To Kill a Mockingbird)

This salad is a result of a time-honored tradition as head chef of this household: It's a hundred and thirty here in St. Louis. Cripes almighty! No cooking will happen--we are all raw foods here. This salad took literally five minutes to prep. I have tomatoes and cucumbers galore from the garden--I pulled out whatever else I had on hand to make a lovely main-dish salad. It was dressed with a yummy balsamic vinaigrette and fresh lemon juice. I had so little energy yesterday afternoon, I could barely scoop the avocado from its shell. Chopping and peeling the cucumber from the garden nearly did me in. And the corn roasting part!--I was able to muster only because I had made a quick dash to the store after my morning run, husked it right away and put in a bag in the fridge. All I had to do was place the corn over the open flame of the stove for a few seconds to add a nice color of "I-worked-hard-to-make-you-a-salad-for-dinner" appeal. Simple. Straightforward and filling. I topped the salad with some quinoa for an extra protein boost. Salads are an essential summer staple right now. 

Vegan Summer "Berry Good" Pie According to Fannie Farmer (A Tale of Two Cities for Me This Summer)

Pies don't last long in this house. It's a tradition for me to bake at least three or four pies during the summer. But given we've had some really steamy, icky-raining, crappy summer days here in St. Louis this year so far, this is my first pie. But oh, what a pie! It's a three berry pie: blueberries, blackberries and raspberries all done according to the Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham. (One of my most treasured cookbooks--and is to be saved first should, godforbid, anything happen to this house.) 

As pies go, if you don't attempt to learn anything else in baking, learning a pie dough recipe by heart will add years to your life and the life of your loved ones. Abiding by the directions from Fannie Farmer, "Pie dough should be made by hand in order to achieve the greatest flakiness. Other methods, using the food processor or blender, overblend the fat and flour and end up making a good, crumbly tart pastry instead of a flake pie crust." Truer words were never said. So here is the memorized pie dough recipe I have used:

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon table salt

3/4 cup vegan shortening

6-7 tablespoons ice cold water

Add flour and salt to medium bowl, then add shortening in pieces, mix together with your hands until a fine crumb forms. And in this case, the mixture should look like what Fannie Farmer says: bread crumbs. Then, add the ice cold water one tablespoon at a time until you can pinch the mixture together and it holds. Split the dough in half, shape into a flat disc, wrap in plastic and chill in fridge for about 30 minutes. (Fannie Farmer says the chilling part is not necessary, and it really isn't despite what you've read. I just like the way the dough handles after a brief chill--my rolling pin experience involves less cursing as well.)

And for the filling, keep it simple: 

5 cups of whatever fruit you'd like

3/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour or cornstarch

juice of half a lemon

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vegan butter

Toss this all together and pour into your pie shell.

Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, then turn oven down to 350, bake 25 minutes more. Cool the pie.

Ta-da: Pie!

Soaking Rains. . . Sewing Myself Sane (and Frankie is eleven months old today!)

The last time I saw the sun, or the last time I can recall seeing it, I spent a lovely, albeit, very hot day in the yard: mowing, pruning and . . . picking some delicious black raspberries for my smoothies later in the day.

 It's been horrible ever since. 

The weather forced me into needing some indoor therapy and productive days in My Sewing Lair. 

Days of happy harvesting and romping through the woods for good fruits.

Long . . . ago.

We're veering off the track of food and recipe sharing for a while. I have to be honest, I've been a single lady here at home a lot these past few weeks and finding solace in other areas of creativity--like sewing. Eating, not so much. (Though I did whip up a big batch of chocolate chip cookies and munch on those little guys regularly. I haven't completely lost my cooking/baking mojo.)

Nothing like a trip to the fabric store to cure what ails you, right? I've shopped for fabric lately more than I have for food. I can go hours and hours sewing. It's meditative to me. Time seems to slip by and suddenly. . . it's almost five in the afternoon.