the past few months...

Cafe Paesan's beautiful homemade pasta. 

 Creamy Italian risotto

 Homemade chickenless noodle soup

(with homemade noodles!)

 Pizza

(or bread with tomatoes)

Diaya cheese pizza!! 

My one year anniversary treat.

The most DELICIOUS vegan mac&cheese ever.

Recipe to come!

Banana bread

Cinnamon cupcake with mexican chocolate buttercream

Banana cupcake with peanut butter vanilla buttercream

Lime-vanilla cupcake with lime frosting

(St. Patricks Day) 

 Chocolate vanilla marbled cupcake

Red velvet with cream cheese frosting

(Valentine's Day)

Cookies and cream cookies

nothing cookies

• -1 1/2 c flour
• -1/2 c sugar
• -1/2 tsp baking soda
• -1/2 tsp salt
• -1/2 c canola oil
• -1 tbsp vanilla
• -1 tbsp maple syrup
• -egg replacer for one egg*
• -cinnamon sugar (to roll dough in)

*i mixed 1 tbsp water, 1 tbsp oil, and 2 tsp baking powder]

Mix dry and wet ingredients separately, then together. Roll into balls and coat with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes. Let cool before serving. Makes 18.

food recap

Pi Pizzeria

Half bacon and real cheese, half sun-dried tomatoes and soy cheese.

The Cupcakery

I found out Madi eats cupcakes in the worst way: 

My sister-in-law (I have those now) made these for my niece's birthday:

 I massacred an artichoke.

In all fairness, I didn't have the internet.

 I tried dipping cupcakes into smashed Oreos, but the tops fell off.

I made some nasty vegan fettucini alfredo.

HOWEVER, my small victory was making some bomb buffalo dip.

Recipe soon to follow. 

gingersnapped

Continuing with my two-month cookie binge, I was inspired by my friend Stephen to make gingersnaps.

And although I followed the recipe TO A T, they somehow came out...a bit gingery. Okay, a lot gingery. My family took one bite and gingerly placed the cookies back on the plate. Even Stephen, who is quite gingery himself, called them 'extreme palette cleansers'. 

How nice, right? I must say the consistency was there, perfectly chewy and soft, but I put a bit too much ginger in there. As if that needed to be said.

At least someone liked them.

So, no, I will not be posting the recipe online. You may thank me in the comment section below.

homemade oreos

Okay, so they don't taste exactly like oreos (and oreos are already vegan, but whatever), but these cookies got thumbs up from my carnivorous family. In truth, these were probably the most complicated cookie I have assembled thus far; that being said, they were pretty easy. I don't make a lot of complicated cookies.

You need:

-3/4 c. shortening (non-hydrogenated)
-1 c. sugar
-2 t. vanilla extract
-1/2 c. soymilk
-1 1/2 c. flour
-1/2 c. cocoa
-2 t. cornstarch
-1/2 t. salt
-1/4 t. baking soda

First, cream together the shortening and sugar with a 

hand mixer (my new best friend) for about a minute.

Next, add the remaining ingredients and continue mixing.

You should get a squishy, oily lump of dough. Yumm.

Take two pieces of parchment (not wax) paper and sandwich

the dough. Roll out with a rolling pin so it's about 

a 1/4 in. thick.

(action shot)

Using some sort of cookie-cutting device, 

cut circles in the dough. You can choose to skip

this and just bake the large flat piece of dough,

breaking it into bars as soon as it's done cooking. 

That is much easier.

Bake at 350° for 12 minutes, then let cool.

While it is baking, make the frosting.

Yes! YUM. Highly recommend skipping the whole cutting-into-circles thing. Unless you wanted them to look like oreos. In that case, knock yourself out. I also made a bit of mint icing to go along with the cookies. Highly recommend that as well.

prethanksgiving contemplations

Well, I've been a bit busy lately (doing what, I don't know) but have been cooking up a vegan cookie STORM. Since I have the rest of the week off, catching up with blogs is high up on my list. But not today.

I am EXTREMELY skeptical about Tofurkey. Soy products molded to taste/look like stuffed turkey...doesn't sound much better than the real deal.

Since I'm working on Thursday night, I am looking forward to packing a portable feast of sweet potato casserole (sans marshmallows, sniff...), homemade whole wheat bread, maybe a vegetable stew...but DEFINITELY some pumpkin pie brownies.

fluffy vanilla icing

YES YES YES! I FINALLY figured out how to make my icing fluffy. This is a really big deal. Drumroll, please. The key to fluffy icing is...



...a handmixer.



I know! It's so simple. And legit bakers (and everyone else) is probably rolling their eyes at me. But whatever, okay? I figured it out by myself.


You need:

-1/4 c. shortening (non-hydrogenated)
-1/4 c. margarine (Earth Balance is yummy)
-2 c. powdered sugar
-1 t. vanilla extract
-1/8 c. soymilk

First, cream the shortening and margarine with a HANDMIXER (!)

Next, add the sugar and beat for about two minutes or so.

It may get chunky.

Add the soymilk and vanilla and beat until smooth and 

fluffy, about five minutes.

Voila! It's fluffy, its wonderful, it makes me cry.

You can add anything to this base, such as 

peanut butter

fruit puree

cocoa

vegan cream cheese

citrus zest

legos

anything.

Now ice something.

These are homemade Oreos from the book

Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar. 

I will post the my experience as soon as I

muster enough energy to go upstairs and get the recipe.

the best part of a wedding

Food, right? I absolutely loved my wedding food and the people who prepared it. The Wild Whisk in Ft. Madison, IA, was truly a needle in a supersmall haystack. For those who do not know, I got married in Nauvoo, IL, a town of about 1,000 people. After spending hours upon hours searching for a caterer that would provide good, vegan-friendly wedding food, I found the Wild Whisk just as I was about to throw in the town. They were seriously the most helpful and accommodating people I have ever worked with, AND their food was super delicious. I don't know how they ended up in Ft. Madison, IA, but I'm sure glad they did. If you are ever in the Nauvoo area, I highly recommend stopping in their adorable bistro.

MENU

Organic Spinach Salad 

with a homemade berry vinaigrette

cucumbers, red onions, dried cranberries

and apricots, and pistachios

Assorted Artisan Breads

Mediterranean Herb Butter and Lemon-Dried Apricot Butter 

(they even made some garlic pepper olive oil for me to dip my bread in)

Oven-Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Crusted Pork Loin

or 

Whole Wheat Penne with Vegan Basil Pesto,

Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Pine nuts

Side Items:

Autumn-Spiced Roasted Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes

Herbs de Provence Roasted Vegetables

The desserts were not vegan, but I heard they were quite delicious. They were from the Ivy Bake Shoppe in Ft. Madison, IA. That's about all I can say about that.

Mexican Wedding Bells

Lemon Curd Tarts

Pumpkin Chiffon Tarts

Raspberry Fruit Tart

Apple Pie Tart

Our cupcakes were made by Celeste Johnson (The Cutest Cakes) who is so nice and accommodating and made the cake topper and a couple cupcakes vegan. She packed them up in bins for us to transport from Evansville to Nauvoo. 

Apple Cake with Caramel Filling and Caramel Icing

(Jeffrey's favorite)

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Chocolate Cake with Dreamy Icing 

Check out my other blog for more wedding photos.