Irish Soda Bread
Tis’ not the season for Irish Soda Bread. St. Patricks Day is a quite a way’s away but Reno was having a Fall Fiesta in her Pre-K class and the teachers asked that the parents bring in a food that celebrates your background. Reno has quite a mix of countries that make up who she is so we had a lot to choose from. I think the teachers assumed she would be bringing something Italian in because of our last name but the problem with that is I’m not Italian. Not even close to being Italian. I struggled a bit with what to make. I wanted to make something that I knew the kids would at least try and Seitan Parmesan was not something I was ready to introduce to those kids and their parents so I brought it down to two choices: Crepes (France) and Irish Soda Bread (Ireland). What kid doesn’t like pancakes and bread?
With the fiasco of the Halloween Cut Out Cookies that I had made for her school I wanted to keep this project as simple as could be so I chose the Irish Soda Bread. Having said that I of course have never made Irish Soda Bread. Crepes….I’ve made before….MANY TIMES. Luckily for me the bread came out beautifully! From what was left over after the Fiesta I would say most of the kids/parents/teachers at the party liked it as well.
Two parents exclaimed at how brave I was to tackle making bread. The thing is this bread was the least labor intensive item at the party. It was in the oven in less then 10 minutes. All you do is throw some dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another, combine, shape, bake for 40 minutes. So simple! I will definitely be making this again for St. Patricks Day in 2012 along with some boiled cabbage and potatoes.
November 19th, 2011
Ghost Cut out Cookies
Halloween was all kinds of messed up this year. The Saturday before we had this freak snowstorm. It was crazy! Trees and heavy branches were falling all over the place. I went outside to check on my husbands car and it was covered with large branches. Luckily there wasn’t any damage. While standing outside all I heard were these loud creaks and cracks and then WHOOOSH. If I turned around quick enough to where the noise was coming from I would see the tops of trees falling to the ground. Because of this storm Halloween was cancelled and the schools were closed on Monday and Tuesday…remember that this storm was on Saturday and there was barely 1 inch of snow on the ground. People were without power for over a week because all the trees fell on the wires…it was a mess.
Re as Dorothy from Wizard of OZ
Reno was suppose to have a Halloween party at her school on the Monday and I for some reason volunteered to make Halloween shaped Cut Out Cookies. Big mistake on my part. Before I knew that school was cancelled I spent hours on Sunday trying to make these cute ghost and skeleton head cookies. Making the dough, cutting them out and baking them was the easy part. Decorating them was a PAIN. IN. THE. ASS. After I applied the white part of the frosting I didn’t realize I had to wait for that stuff to dry before drawing on the face with the other color frosting. It took forever. I eventually gave up and went to the store and bought already made and decorated cookies that weren’t vegan. The second I got home from doing that I received a call to say that school was cancelled. I could have killed someone since that would have given me enough time to finish the cookies. It turns out us parents all agreed to have the party on that Friday because of all the families who wouldn’t get their power back until then. I still gave out the unvegan cookies because by then my delicious cookies weren’t fresh enough. At least I know for next year that I need to start decorating them first thing in the morning so they are dry enough by the mid afternoon to paint their sweet little faces on them.
Miles as Mickey Mouse
I also wanted to mention that Trick or Treating this year was horrible also. The town cancelled trick or treating on Halloween because of all the down trees and wires, which made total sense, and made it for that Friday. I took Reno around our neighborhood that Friday and hardly anyone answered their doors and we only saw 2 groups of kids plus one other single kid trick or treating. It was miserable and I felt so bad for Re. She loves Halloween so much and it sucked this year. She took it all in stride though and I am happy that she got very little candy. She did however get a lot of bags of potato chips which I found bizarre. I’m hoping next year will be better for her.
November 12th, 2011
Seitan Wrap w. Cashew Dill Sauce
Yeah this is the same picture from my last post. Sauces are hard to photograph on their own so I’m reusing this pic just to show you a use for the sauce. Makes sense?
I originally set out to make a Cashew Ranch sauce but came up short due to lack of herbs and spices that I didn’t have/couldn’t find…whatever. I still plan on making that Cashew Ranch one of these days but I was really happy with what I made and I basically put it on everything I made last week. From the seitan wrap above, burrito’s for lunch and some sauteed potatoes another day this stuff was delicious. I made it the same night I made the seitan wraps and the raw onion in it wasn’t subtle at all but I was fine with that. As the days went by that it sat in the fridge waiting for it’s next appearance in one of my meals the raw onion taste melded perfectly with the rest of the ingredients and it wasn’t so in your face. The sauce just kept getting better and better as the week went on. So I highly recommend making this and letting it sit in the fridge for a day or at least overnight before using.
Cashew-Dill Sauce
makes 1 1/4 cups
1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least one hour or overnight
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
pinch of red pepper flake
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, lightly packed
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper to taste
Drain the cashews and pour them into your blender (I use a Vita Mix to get a true creamy texture, if not using a Vita Mix or other high powered blender you might need to add more water) along with with the garlic, onion, lemon juice, dill, red pepper flakes, parsley and water. Blend until smooth adding more water in necessary until you achieve a nice, slightly thick sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
October 21st, 2011
Seitan Sauteed with Garlic
I get weird sometimes about sharing recipes. Sometimes I’m greedy and just want to keep them to myself, like my brownie recipe, which on occasion I share with people close to me and I’m getting closer to being comfortable sharing on here. Most of the time I just get anxious that no one will like it, it won’t come out the same way for you as it does for me, I can always improve on it so I’ll just wait until then, blah blah blah. The one recipe I’ve been saying over and over again that I’m “going to post on my blog real soon” is my seitan recipe. Its falls under the category of “I can always improve on it so I’ll just wait until then”. I finally realized the other day that I’ve been making it the same way for months now and I’ve served it to a lot of people over that time. Most of those people are meat eaters and they have all loved it. So I’m finally going to share it today although I think I’ll need a few drops of Rescue Remedy to calm my nerves before I do.
Before simmering (these pictures aren’t pretty to look at) :)
I love making my own seitan for a few reasons: it’s cheap, it’s easy, I don’t like any of the brands that I can buy in the stores by me and I can flavor it however I want. What I don’t/didn’t like about making it is the 5 or so minutes that is needed to knead the seitan. You see I broke my hand about 6 years ago and kneading anything still KILLS it. On really cold winter days my right hand is basically useless. I knead away though each and every time until I can’t take it anymore. The last time I made the seitan it was a chilly day, my hand wasn’t cooperating and I FINALLY thought to just let my KitchenAid stand mixer do all the work for me. Sweet jesus that machine just made my life a whole lot easier and less painful! Why I didn’t think of it before is beyond me. So you can make this recipe either way…with your own two hands or with the help of your KitchenAid.
Basic Seitan
makes 8-9 thick cutlets
Broth
16 cups water
2 tablespoons concentrated broth (I use Better Than Bouillon’s non chicken base) or 3 bouillon cubes
1/4 cup tamari
3 bay leaves
Seitan
3 cups vital wheat gluten
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup tamari
1/2 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
For the broth: add all the ingredients to a large pot with a lid. (any pot that you can cook pasta/soup in is perfect). Leave it be until the seitan is ready to be added.
For the seitan: In a large mixing bowl add the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, cumin and garlic powder and stir to combine. In a medium size bowl whisk together the cold water, tamari, unsweetened non dairy milk and olive oil until well mixed. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix. Here is where you either get your hands dirty or throw in in your KitchenAid stand mixer if you have one. Knead for about 5 minutes until you have a giant, stretchy ball of gluten in your hands (mixer). With your hands or kitchen knife divide the dough into 8-9 pieces and stretch those pieces out a bit to form a cutlet shape. Once all the seitan cutlets are formed slip them into the pot and turn the heat onto high. Once the broth starts to boil immediately lower to a simmer and cover the pot leaving the lid slightly off so some steam can escape. Simmer the seitan for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn off the heat, fully cover the pot and let sit for at least 20-30 minutes.
Remove the seitan to a lidded container and add enough of the cooking broth to cover it and store it in the fridge until ready to use.
Seitan Wrap w. Cashew Dill Mayo
My favorite ways to use this seitan is to thinly slice it and saute it in olive oil with a lot of garlic for Seitan Wraps or i’ll cut it into thicker strips to make seitan finger type meals like my Pecan Crusted Seitan or Beer Battered Seitan. I’ll also marinate thick slices in BBQ sauce and grill it either outside on the grill or inside on a grill pan for a Seitan Rib dinner.
Now like I said this recipe falls under the “I can always improve this recipe…” If I ever do improve upon it I promise to share it. 
October 18th, 2011
40 Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli
Another Appetite For Reduction dish. 40 Clove…is by far my favorite thing I’ve made from this cookbook. Its in heavy rotation on our list of regular meals which means we are eating it once every week or so. That also means that Reno eats it and loves it. I’ve served it to family and friends and everyone raves about it. The best part about it is how quickly it comes together. You basically throw everything in a pan and stick it in the oven for a bit then add another ingredient and stick it back in the oven for a bit more. I always double the recipe because I love it as leftovers the next day. I serve it over rice so when I pack it together in a container the rice absorbs the broth and flavor all night long making for an extra flavorful lunch the next day.
I’ve made a few minor changes to the recipe. I add a bit of tamari to the broth and I use thyme instead of oregano. One some occasions I’ll also juice the lemon I’ve zested and will add that to the broth as well.
I highly recommend you make this recipe ASAP!
October 13th, 2011
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