In which we make everything...

So...  You know how over the course of this blog we've documented how as a result of moving to the suburbs and into a township where the Subway doesn't even carry the veggie patty we subsequently began to cook for ourselves?

Well, recently we've been way too quick to order that no cheese pizza (damn you Doughboys for being so incredible!), or just go to Loving Hut when Gina is working in Robinson - which is pretty freaking often.

As a result, we poor.

The straw that broke the camel's back, (in a totally cruelty free way), was when I decided that I really needed to buy this piano:

My friend's Aunt was selling it for steal!  (Plus, it's super sweet. Gina loves to hear me play the theme songs to old video games which, to her infinite luck, I still remember how to play.  And play often.)

What happened was, the day of the piano's arrival was dawning and we came to the startling realization that we had maybe had one too many bowls of Pho at Loving Hut.  One too many slices of that insanely satisfying Doughboy's pie (I swear to God they bake crack into the crust you need it so much after you've tasted it.)  In short, we were in over our heads.

So, like the modern minded people we are we started texting solutions back and forth (we were at work) and what we finally came up with was this:

1) A drastic cut to the restaurant scene.
2) No more buying of things we can make ourselves unless on a very special occasion:
      (a) Tofurkey products (lunch meat, brats, actual tofurkeys)
      (b) breads (!!!!)
      (c) fake meats like Boca Burgers, seitan cutlets, etc...
3) a couple weeks of No-Internet-Purchasing (I'm referring to you, iTunes - you unworldly temptation after a beer or two...)

I tried to add a number (4) in which Gina sews me new jeans and I cobble new shoes for us but she drew the line.

This past friday night, as a result, we began simplifying.

We finally broke out that breadmaker we got as a wedding gift and Gina made two loaves of delicious bread.  A Rosemary('s baby) Bread, and an Oatmeal Bread.

Here's Rosemary Bread piping hot, coming out of the machine and still in the bread pan:

And here's she is in all her glory - and the bread too:

I dont have any pics of the Oatmeal bread.  Gina made it while I was hiking on Saturday (more on that later).

We then made chickpea cutlets from the Veganomicon, and veggie patties.  I forgot to photograph the cutlets, but you've seen those before.  The veggie patties turned out way better than I thought they would.  They were also from the veganomicon, but I baked them instead of frying them and they turned out really wonderfully firm.  Here they are in the oven, baking:

And here they are finished:

I thought they turned out really good.  Other one's we've tried turned out really mushy, but these were really firm.

We then put our stash of patties and cutlets into the freezer like so:

Once there, they became fast, inseparable friends with that bag of mustard greens, the box of leftover filo dough, and that blue topped tupperware container in which rest like 2 leftover pierogies.  We hear them all murmuring to one another in the dead of the night in a language that we do not understand.  It's unsettling.

Anyway, we've been living on them ever since.

As I mentioned, Saturday I got up bright an early, met up with a co-worker, and traveled to OHIO to hike at a lake called Mosquito Lake.

And let me tell you, never has a lake been more aptly named.

It was scenic as hell though.  Here's some nature for you:

It was a really nice hike, lots of mosquitoes though.  We had a good time.

Tonight for dinner we had Pasta e Fagioli (said:  Pasta Fazoooooool) and because I am just not the kinda guy who documents his every action in iPhone photos, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Wait up - I'll snap one right now, of the leftovers in the fridge:

Sorry.  It looked way better when it was in a bowl.

People in my family who see this will notice two things almost immediately.  (1) that I used the wrong type of pasta, and (2) that I used the wrong type of bean.

My family makes a very different version of Pasta e Fagioli, I've learned, than - like - the rest of the world.  Ours is elbow macaroni, kidney beans, and a marinara slightly different than our families spaghetti sauce recipe (yeah, I still cant make it as good as my Mom's.)

Historically, Pasta e Fagioli (which literally translates to pasta and beans) was peasant food (which is why Gina and I will now be living on this forever in addition to our chickpea cutlets and veggie patties).  And, most strikingly different than the way we make it is that if you order this in most Italian restaurants around here what you get it pretty much a soup.

I just did some extensive, exhausting research (wikipedia) and actually discovered that the consistency of the dish can vary in thickness.  It's not actually classified as a soup (at least in wikipedia).

Whatever, its awesome.

The version we made tonight - because I sure as hell wasn't buying anything else until we get paid - consisted of Quinoa Pasta Rotelli left over from before we were poor (we can just add that one right up there on the list of things never to enter the kitchen of our house before we moved in) and Cannellini beans (they're close to kidney beans, right?)

I thought it turned out pretty good.

More to come on all this.

PIEROGIS

I should not have been full of any ambition today - not after last night.

After work yesterday, Gina and her co-worker decided that after a stressful day/week it would be a good idea to have "a drink or two" at this bar in Robinson.  I was into the idea, having suggested that we got to the Tower Lounge after work anyway - Downey's House in Robinson worked just fine for me.

One drink led to another and before we knew it more co-workers were showing up and the army of empties on the table was growing rank by rank.

When I woke up this morning I braced myself for what I knew would certainly be nothing less than a terrible hangover only to find that I felt oddly (impossibly) totally fine.

Gina, perhaps, did not fare so well.

While she napped this afternoon I was talking to my mom on the phone and leafing through Terry Hope Romero's Vegan Eats World which, for some unknown reason, was lying out on the dining room table.

Flipping through I happened across her recipe for Potato Pierogi with Fried Onions and said aloud, to my mom - totally on a whim:  "I'm going to try making pierogi's from scratch today."

This was met with brief silence during which, I'm sure, my mom was trying to think of a nice way to say that we all would like to make homemade pierogi's, but no one on this planet actually has time to do it.  Go buy a box of Mrs. T's.

"Oh, pierogi's sound good..."  She began, hesitantly, "But dont those take all day to do?"

I didn't know, but I suddenly could not shake image of glistening, buttery pierogi's.  I needed them.  I needed them today.

Let me make something very clear before I continue:  If you are reading this and have ever thought to yourself, "I'd like to make homemade pierogi's but either (A) I am not an Eastern European Grandmother, or (B) those definitely take hours and hours and hours and I will never possibly have that kind of time, in the words of the dear Sweet Brown, "Aint nobody got time for that.".  - Or some variation or combination of options A and B, please tell those voices in your head to hit the road, take a hike, pack their bags for a trip to Eastern Europe where some polish grandmother can show them that pierogi making, while not a great option to start from scratch after work on a work night, definitely will not consume your entire saturday.

An hour and a half and you'll be in pierogi heaven.

Here's a run down on what happened - I could give you a history lesson on pierogis carefully researched via this page on wikipedia, but instead I will assume that we all live in a city where you can go to a baseball game and watch people dressed as what I'm about to show you run a race, so you'd probs find the history lesson pointless and boring.  Moving on:

First, Terry Hope Romero directs in the production of a very simple dough which can be used with pretty cool versatility for the dumplings of varying nationalities  (Here's lookin' at you potstickers, you're next on the list).

Mine looked like the humble blob below:

Wrap the dough in plastic an let it sit for at least an hour.

During this time you chop up about 2 pounds of potatos and a pound of onions.  Good luck figuring those measurements out.  I just used 9 smallish Idaho potatoes and decided it'd be enough, and 2 mediumish red onions - because we had them.

You put the potatoes in water and turn the heat up to bring them to a boil.  In the meantime, fry the onions in a bunch of butter (Earth Balance) for like 15 minutes.  (The part of me that sort of obsesses over healthy food was kind of freaking out about the amount of butter in this recipe  (3 tablesppons for just the dough, then another 3 tablespoons to try the onions in), but then the voice in my head which typically pulls through and allows me to actually have fun chimed in and pointed out: "You have no room to talk about living healthy my friend of a thousand beers last night."  and I was humbled.)

You don't really need to see a picture of frying onions to understand this concept but I took one anyway for some reason:

Set aside the onions once they/re done and let the potatoes boil for what ever's left of 20 minutes at this point.  Does that make sense?  Terry Hope Romero explained it a lot better.

Anyway, once the potatos are done you mash them along with 1/4 cup of the fried onions, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast.  She called for fresh dill but I was determined to make this without going to the store (we had leftover potatoes already), I did an internet search on things you can replace dill with and everyone was pretty much like, "nothing."  but one person suggested maybe Tarragon if you're really in a bind so I just used that.

By now your dough should have been sitting wrapped in plastic for about an hour.

Terry (I guess we can be on a first name basis now?) then says to put a large pot on the stove, crank the heat, and fill it with 4 quarts of water (which I had no idea how to measure so I Googled it and discovered that this is 16 cups of water, in case you also didn't know.)   Add in salt an a little oil and allow this to come to a boil while you do the steps below.

Divide the dough into 4 parts, take one and re-wrap the remaining dough in plastic.  Lightly flour a surface and roll out your dough:

She then say's to use a 3 inch circular cookie cutter to cut out circles of dough.  I didn't have one, so I found the closest round tupperware container we had to 3 inches and used that:

Then I cut out circles.  It was oddly calming:

You then scoop 1 tablespoon of the potato mixture and plop it with an airy, Eastern European indifference somewhere in the middle of one of the dough disks, then carefully stretch the dough over the potatoes and pinch the edges together.

When you have them all filled you dump them carefully into the pot on the stove which, by now, should be boiling unless you are insanely fast at rolling out your dough and filling the disks.  Weirdo.

She says to only put 6 in at a time and boil them for 4 minutes.  I would boil six, then use a slotted spoon to put them into a casserole dish with a lid to keep them warm while I boiled the  next round:

When they were all made I contacted Gina in the Land of the Mythical Head Ache and willed her to eat telling her, in partial truth, that these are the best hangover food.  She loved it - and I think it really did help her head:

Try it!  It seriously took give or take an hour and a half.  You end up with a billion tons of leftover's too. Just place the leftover pierogis in rows on a baking sheet with parchment paper on it and freeze them, once they're frozen you can put them in tupperware and put them back in the freezer and they wont all stick together.

POTATOES O'BRIEN

Quick post -

A lot of weekend mornings we make homefries.  They're so easy to make and so delicious. 

This morning was a homefries kind of morning.  They won out over tofu scramble because I want to save the tofu for something else.

Actually, I learned (Thanks wikipedia) that if one were to add onions and bell peppers to the mix this magically transforms Homefries into Potatoes O'Brien.

(I have to pause to explain that while I write this, our cat Max is trying to drive me insane.  He is not allowed to walk on the kitchen table.  I think its gross when cats walk on kitchen tables or counters or anywhere you put food because they stand in their litter boxes.  Gina argues that I let Bob jump onto the sink in the bathroom to drink out of it and we keep out toothpaste there.  I really have no backing argument to that but I continue to let Bob drink out of the sink in the bathroom.  Anyway, Max keeps jumping up on the kitchen table, and I keep picking him up and puting his heavy ass back on the floor - from which he immediately jumps back up.  The only solution to this, for some reason, is to shake a plastic bag at him.  It works every time.)

Back to potatoes and breakfast:

POTATOES O'BRIEN (with a smoky twist)

What you'll need:

6 medium sized potatoes (chopped into medium cubes)
1 large red onion
1 bell pepper (I used green but use whatever you've got lying around)
1 tbs olive oil
non stick cooking spray
soy sauce
1/2 tbs garlic powder
1/2 tbs smoked paprika
pepper

Whatchooo do:

0.  Put on The Besnard Lakes album "...Are the Dark Horse".
1.  Put your cubed potatoes into a stock pot and then cover them with water, but only just enough to cover them completely.
2.  Bring the potatoes in the water to a boil on your stovetop and then turn the heat to medium/high-ish and cover them letting them simmer for 15 minues.

3.  In the meantime, chop you onion, chop your bell pepper.

Now, while the potatoes boil do whatever dishes you have lying around, play with the cats, talk to your wife about how you love this Besnard Lakes album and then get into a kind of/sort of argument with her about how they do not sound like a billion other bands and their songs are not all really long and boring.  Walk away from this argument, its not worth it.  (She's wrong).  Change the subject, go back into the kitchen to check the potato time and then still realize you have like 5 minutes of potato boiling to wait out.

4.  Once the timer FINALLY goes off, pour the potatoes into a strainer.

5.  Heat in a pan the olive oil, once hot add the potatoes and flip them a bunch to coat all of them with olive oil.  Turn the heat down to medium and then cover the potatoes and let them cook undisturbed for 5 minutes.

6.  Flip the potatoes gently and spray with nonstick cooking spray.  Re cover and cook for another 5 minutes occasionally flipping them.

7.  Add the peppers and onions and spices.  Then add the soy sauce, enough to get the tops of all of the potatoes you can see.  Stir everything well and re-cover for 3 minutes flipping occasionally.  Traditionally salt and pepper are the only things you use but I wanted the smoked paprika for some smoky mystery and I like the way the soy sauce tastes as a substitute for just plain old salt.  The garlic powder just made sense to me.

8.  ENJOY.

Now imma figure out what to do with the rest of today.  Maybe get a haircut.  Maybe walk on the Montour Trail.  IDK.

TACO PIE

Thank God it's Friday.

Seriously, what an annoyingly long week!  Every freakin' day felt like forever.  But now it's THE WEEKEND!  (Insert chorus of triumphant screams)

It was kind of busy week.  For the first few days I was helping my Dad with some computer issues until really late each night - and by "helping my Dad" I really mean that I called my best friend John, who happens to be an I.T. Guru and put him on the phone with my Dad while I kind of hung out because I know nothing about computers.

Each night I threw dinner together fairly quickly because I was getting home earlier than Gina - but the quickest and most satisfying of all was TACO PIE.

I have accepted that there isn't a chance in hell that I invented this.  I haven't looked, but I'll bet if you Google "recipe for Taco Pie" about a billion hits will come up.

Cut me some slack, though!  I threw it together in like 5 minutes and just kind of went on instinct (hungry, tired, annoyed instinct)

So you too can make a very quick (albeit, likely not super healthy) dinner, below is a run down of what I did.

TACO PIE

What you'll need:

- 2 tubes of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (which, incidentally, are vegan ((who knew?)) as long as you buy the original, not the weird pre-buttered ones)
- 1 package of Yves veggie crumbles. (or whatever veggie crumbles you have.  I like the Yves brand better than Morning Star and Boca)
- 1 15 oz can of black beans
- Non Stick cooking spray.
- 1 package of taco seasoning
- 1 half of a small jar of salsa - I guess it'd be like a cup of salsa?  That sounds about right.
- 1/4 cup of water

How you do this thing:

1.  Preheat your oven to about 350
2.  "Brown" your veggie crumbles in a pan with the black beans.  "Brown them?" You ask. Yes. That's what it says to do to the ground beef on the taco seasoning package.  Secretly your veggie crumbles will remain exactly the same color.  Sorry.
3.  Add your package of taco seasoning and stir it in well.
4.  Add 1/4 cup of water.
5.  Add your salsa, mix well, cook stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
6.  Spray a 21x21.5  inch casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray
7.  Pop open one of those Pillsbury Crescent Roll tubes (don't even try to deny how fun it is to do that.  Who even thought of that!  So satisfying.)  Stretch the whole dough sheet so it covers the bottom and the sides of the casserole dish.
8.  Pour your taco "meat"  into the casserole dish on top of the spread crescent roll dough and spread it out evenly.
9.  Pop open the 2nd crescent roll package and divide the triangles placing them strategically across the top of the taco meat until they cover it all the way.
10. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the crescent roll begins to get - you know - golden brown.

The final product looked like this:

I was so sure that this would miserably fail while it was baking that I was super shocked when it turned out so well!

Here's a cut slice:

Other nights we ate things like Tofurky brauts, hastily made soup (not even a real soup recipe), and one ambitious night I made that same chickpea picatta that we posted about on our Anniversary.  I've been making that picatta about once or twice a week for the last month - it's become kind of an obsession.

We also discovered our favorite no cheese pizza by far, ANYWHERE.

It's from Doughboy's Pizza in McKees Rocks and they have magically perfected the no cheese pizza in such a way that any other pizza place around here that tries it should hang their heads in shame.

We get it with spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms.  Their spinach is fresh, though.  And the tomatoes - I swear to God - taste and look like bruschetta topping.

It looks like this:

Yes, that is a gigantic jug of Carlo Rossi in the background.  I'm drinking some of that jug while I write this.  (Please ignore the zip lock bags resting atop the oranges...  Better yet, please ignore everything else in the picture except that amazing pizza pie.)

That's it for now!

Guacamole: How to get possessed by Aztec Gods.

In 2010, during the cold, cold winter I read Gary Jennings' Aztec and loved the crap out of it.  I guess my love for ancient South America started when I was a very young buck (like 4 years old young) and I religiously watched The Mysterious Cities of Gold, an 80's weekly cartoon about a young orphan from Spain that gets wrapped up with a group of explorers searching South America for the Lost Cities of Gold in the 15, or 1600's (I cant remember).

Somehow aliens come into the story.  I kid you not.

I watched this when it was on TV in the 80's (Incidentally, a very dorky 28 year old Jason would find every freaking episode of the aforementioned French/Asian cartoon and re-watch it on Hooloo over the span of a couple weeks.  He loved it just as much as his 4 year old self did.)  and from this arose a really intense kid-love of anything Myan, Incan, or Aztec.

Anyway - you may be wondering where I am going with this.  Well, I'll tell you.

The fantastic novel Aztec may not mention it, but Guacamole came to us directly from the ancient Aztecs.  Its of 16th century origin and literally translates to Avocado sauce.

Gina is going to meet up with some co workers today - and I offered to make some guacamole for her. 

Once upon a time I followed a recipe from this that I found online - but since then I've stopped and just kind of put in whatever I want.  Let's just say the spirit of ancient Aztec takes me and I lose all sense of space and time and find myself, suddenly, with delicious green goodness.  Something like that.

Here's what yinz'll need:

2 ripe acacados
2 tomatoes (chopped up with a Macuahuitl - you know, an Aztec sword.  If you dont have one of these just use a sharp kitchen knife.  Be careful.)
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 small red onion or half of a large one.  (see above instructions for the tomato)
lemon juice (3 tablespoons)
Cumin (1 teaspoon)
salt and pepper to taste

1.  Combine the tomatoes with the avacadoes.

2.  Add the garlic to the tomatoes.

3. Combine the onions with the stuff already in there. (I am fully aware of how unnecessary the photographs of these steps are - but lets be honest, guacamole doesnt really take a master chef to concoct, I needed to fill space with something.) 

4.  Add the cumin to the mix:

5.  Add the salt, pepper, and lemon juice (After the cumin I got a little over ambitious and stopped taking pictures of the next few steps.  That's probably where Quetzalcoatl (you know, the Aztec feathered serpent god?  Duh.) possessed me and guided my hand in the final steps of Guac making.)

6.  Mix well with a fork smashing up all of the avocado. Its best enjoyed pretty immediately. Enjoy!

Summer time GAZPACHO and ChickPea cutlets with Mustard Sauce

It's been humid as hell recently.  I and mean that in the least vulgar way possible - like, if there really is a hell - it is probs about this humid.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned my sultry love affair with Salsa on here or not?

Well - to put it mildly, I have 3 loves in my life right now:

1.  Gina
2. Bob
3. Soup

But if I were to have a secret lover on the side - it would be Salsa.

That said, I have always held a fascination with that old time Spanish/Andalucian classic:  Gazpacho.

Believe it or not - this guy you're reading about right now, who has an outright love for soup and secret love for Salsa has never even tried the almost mind altering combination of the two.

But its true.  Never before had gazpacho passed these teeth.

Never before, that is, this past weekend:

GAZPACHO - HOW I LOVE THEE, AND OPENLY

Catchy subtitle, huh?

Okay - I admit, the very first time I tried this wonder, I made it myself - so I have absolutely no way of knowing if it tastes anything like the real deal - but trust, me - it was damn good.

(That said, I also kinda...  well you know...  I sort of...  Okay - I altered the recipe of something that I had never tried before to make it the way I have always wanted this to taste - when I pictured the taste in my head...  Sorry ancient Spaniards.)

The origins of this are actually ancient (here's where my use of a food processor falls distressingly short of authenticity - sorry, I didn;t have a mortar and pestle large enough to make it the way the old timers did!)

Some history on it here.  Some think its a variation on a soup the Arabs once made involving bread and olive oil and garlic (Mmmm), other think the Romans are responsible due to the use of vinegar.  What is known for sure, though, is that it made its way eventually to Andelusian cuisine.

What I used:

1 cucumber
2 red bell peppers
6 cloves of garlic
1 small red onion
2 cups of vegetable juice (I just used the Shop n' Save brand in a bottle)
1 jalapeno
5 medium tomatos
3 tablespoons of Lemon Juice (I used a bottle of lemon juice, but you can use real lemons if you want)
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
1/4 cup (or more) or vinegar - I used apple cidar
1 can of chickpeas (definitely NOT part of any of the original recipes but I added it for protein)

 What I did was:

1.  Roughly chop each vegetable separately into medium chunks.

2. Use a food processor to individually chop each, but not too finely.

3. Combine all chopped veggies in a very large bowl, mix

4. Add garlic, lemon juice, Olive Oil and the vegetable juice, vinegar and chickpeas and mix well:

5. Chill for at least an hour (longer if you can wait - the longer you let it sit, the better it tastes)

6.  ENJOY in multiple bowl fulls

It was pretty much heaven.  I ate it for like 3 meals.

Chick Pea Cutlets smothered in amazing Mustard Sauce

A few years ago, when Gina and I first started dating, I lived in this studio apartment in Squirrel Hill.

I was between jobs for a couple weeks and had some time on my hands.  I had just gotten into starting to make vegetarian/vegan food for myself and had bought The Veganomicon.

One day, Gina was just getting home from work and I texted her and told her to just come over, I had dinner all made.  

I was so proud of myself.

What I created was the recipe for Chickpea Cutlets from that book, with a recipe for Mustard Sauce (also - you know - from that book.)

Gina brought things full circle and made the same meal for us the other night.

You mash up chickpeas with spices and vital wheat gluten and veggie broth and form it into a ball first:

Then you divide it into four small balls and then shape them cutlets and bake them.

For the mustard sauce it is - I believe Dijon Mustard combined with veggie broth, white wine, capers and spices.

We enjoyed it with steamed broccoli and mustard greens.

My plate:

Gina's:

It was delicious!  The cutlets are so meaty and wonderful and I cant even explain the mustard sauce - its totally key.  Definitely try it.

And that's all for this evening.  

Posting is back ON.

Flatbread Paradise.

Greetings.

I apologize for our long absence of blogging. Jason posted about the flatbread delights we have been experiencing for lunch so I thought I would show you how to also have them for dinner.

This was a quick after work meal. I used Victoria Vegan Mushroom Marinara for the sauce, which though it is a bit pricey for a jar of it (7.99) it is worth it if you want to save some time. It's delicious and very flavorful. Other additions were mushrooms, spinach, Yves vegan pepperoni, and glorious Daiya mozzarella cheese. Obviously, you can put whatever you want on this pizza.

.

 This is the finished product.

It was really good and it only took about 20 minutes to prepare and bake. It definitely helped curb the pizza craving we experience every so often and was much better (and cheaper!) than ordering a pizza with no cheese from a pizza place out here which always leaves much to be desired.

In April, I celebrated birthday number 29 and we had some friends over for a little birthday celebration. Earlier in the day we had our families over so I made many dips. In all of the rushing around I only managed to take a picture of two of them. I'm sorry. This brings us to my new favorite dip - Buffalo Chickpea Dip. You can find the recipe I used here. I really loved this dip, it was really easy to make and found that even though I did not like Buffalo Chicken Dip in my long ago meat eating days, I definitely like this dip.

I also tried a new spinach and artichoke dip. Recipe is here. I thought incorporating sauerkraut was really interesting so I wanted to give it a shot. I thought it was decent but the next time I found myself making a dip I reverted to my tried and true recipe from Betty Crocker and just veganized it. That recipe can be found here. Here is a picture of the new one I tried. I never took a picture of them once baked so I apologize. Above all, I thought it was good but the consistency seemed a bit too soupy for my liking. 

 In April I also made this awesome meal using a recipe from The V Word. It is Penne with Roasted Garlic Butternut Squash, Kale and Hazelnuts, it was amazing, as every recipe from that website is.

Also from The V Word I made Ooey-Gooey Baked Ziti which was also an amazing meal and we had leftovers for pretty much a whole week. Make this with some garlic bread and a nice salad and you have a kickass Italian dinner for two (or an entire army since that is how Italians cook).

I have a little staycation from work this coming week so hopefully I will get to share some more awesome recipes. Since it is finally nice out we should also be experimenting with some grilling fun. Stay tuned!