Blueberry Crumb Bars

Today was the first day of school. It was hard. I ate one of these*:
Smitten Kitchen comes through again. I simply used a quarter cup of applesauce instead of an egg. Lemony blueberry goodness.

*At least I had the oomph to take a crappy picture first.

Jackfruit Tacos

So, I've been eying these "carnitas" tacos for quite some time now (or at least the time it takes for another trip to the Pacific Ocean Market) and finally got around to trying them out yesterday. I followed pretty much followed the recipe--except I roasted the carnitas in a shallow baking dish for 20 minutes on 400 after slowcooking it (I was trying to get the crispiness that carnitas get and kind of did). I also served it with homemade pico de gallo and refried beans. I really, really liked this dish, though the jackfruit still tasted briny (in fact, the brininess was particularly strong today when it was cold...yuck) and I'm trying to figure out how get rid of that flavor altogether. Any ideas?

The good news is that I get to mark another item off my 101 things list. I tried kohlrabi last week as well, but I think I may have tried it before and I didn't do anything with it--just tried a chunk. I wasn't impressed, but I don't blame the kohlrabi. I just wasn't sure what to do with it.
Pico de Gallo
6 roma tomatoes, seeded and finely diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 jalapeno, finely diced
1 handful of cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
dash of olive oil
salt to taste

Mix the diced produce together, then carefully mix in the rest of the ingredients. Chill and enjoy.

Ebony and Ivory...

...or, in this case peanut butter "cream cheese" frosting and chocolate, do go together in perfect harmony. Josh's birthday was last Friday and I decided that I'd bake him a fancy cake for his birthday. Josh loves peanut butter and chocolate and to prove my complete and utter selflessness, I not only baked him a cake with those two things which I don't particularly like but I also baked--which I don't like to do.

Luckily for me, Smitten Kitchen had recently posted a recipe for a chocolate peanut butter cake. As she points out, this cake is incredibly rich: three layers of chocolate cake connected with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and topped with a chocolate glaze. it also has more sugar than flour and an impressive amount of oil. Josh, by some miracle, managed to put away two good size pieces after a big dinner. But, be forewarned, this cake is not for weak of heart--or stomach.
Also, this cake was exceptionally easy to veganize using earth balance, soy creamer, egg replacer and so forth. I do, however, recommend cooking the cakes for a few minutes longer, though I'm not sure why mine took longer (replaced ingredients, altitude, ineptness...?).

White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Tan Food

Somewhere, somehow, I heard that garlic was good for colds. And, somewhere, somehow, I though that making a recipe out of all our cookbooks--granted, at the time I was thinking only of cookbooks I'd thus far neglected before then deciding that I shouldn't limit the new experiences I could gain from this whole crazy idea and I would indeed make a recipe I'd never tried before from each and every one demanding square footage which is admittedly easy to come by 'round these parts--would be a good idea. Naturally, when added together, these two ideas equal "White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup" from Vegan with a Vengeance. For another reason that kind of eludes me, I though that it would be a good idea to use dry beans instead of canned. A decision I came to around 1:30 this afternoon. As a result, the soup seemed crazy complicated, but I'm sure that's only because it took me 7 hours from quick soak to finish. The good news is that Josh said he felt better 4 bites into the first bowl, so I guess that makes it worth it. By the time it was done, I wasn't really feeling up to breaking up that tan, so I just take the damn picture.
On a slightly less tan note, I also made the "Tofu Ricotta" from VwaV which I stuffed into shells with Teese and shredded zucchini and an attempt at marinara (I've never liked the stuff). Totally worth all the dirty pots and pans and stovetop. I picked an exploding shell to show off the ricotta. So, yes, it's another fairly unattractive picture of food. Sorry, Isa.

Yellow Rose Recipes

Josh woke up feeling crappy today, so he's been camped out downstairs watching Batman Begins and the original X Files movie between naps. Not wanting to catch whatever crud he has, I've kept my ass upstairs. I took the opportunity to catch up some things around the house: touching up the paint, laundry, dishes, and cleaning out the fridge. Since we had a bunch of leftover produce going bad from the Community Cycles shindig and I need to get on my goal of trying at least one recipe from the mountains of cookbooks we own, I decided to make the Raw Corn Salsa and Aloha Bread from Yellow Rose Recipes ( I also made several other things, but that's the next post).

I originally had doubts about the salsa, though I think I was just being stubborn because it calls for cayenne instead of a fresh pepper of some sort. I'm not sure why I thought anyone could mess up salsa. I guess I have strong feelings about these things. Anyway, I need not have worried because it came out great. Completely unphotogenic, but great.

I've been eying the Aloha bread for a while and decided to actually bake something today. I hate to bake. And I don't like sweets, but that bread has all my favorite fruit in it so I had to give it a try. It does not disappoint. It was even good without the almond extract which Josh told me we had. We didn't. We have vanilla and orange and rootbeer and two bottles of lemon, but no almond. I don't particularly like almond extract anyway, so it's just as well. It's easier to taste the orange and pineapple and coconut this way.
So, so far, Yellow Rose has split even for me. I tried two recipes that I wasn't crazy about and two that I really like. Anyone else have some favorite recipes from that cookbook?

Anasazi Bean and Rice Quesadilla

Oy. I'm getting slower and slower at posting these things--even though I'm sitting around doing nothing. Funny how that happens. I finally decided to try the Quesadillas (with some minor changes) that Jennifer (of Veg*n Cooking) posted about a while back. This was basically a variation of the other Mexican-y squash based dishes I've been focused on lately. However, the anasazi beans are wonderful and a nice change. The salsa I served these with--Chipotle Roasted Tomatillo Salsa--complemented the quesadillas perfectly.

Somehow, once I gave up cheese, I never though about making quesadillas. What a dolt I am.

Summer Tacos

I'm overwhelmed by all the things I need to do. I'm staring the semester in the (not so pretty) face and I've tasked myself with 101 things to do and--though the list actually gives me some confidence and focus--there's a lot to do and all I want to do is sit around and watch crappy TV like "Greatest American Dog." I suppose these really are the dog days of summer.

Luckily, tonight's dinner did not add to my stress at all. I finally got around to trying another tester recipe for Happy Herbivore: Summer Tacos. Delicious and anxiety free.