Thank You Peter Brady?

Isa's post yesterday immediately called to mind my childhood as she remembered Peter Brady saying, “Pork chops and appleshauche, porkchops and appleshauche…” However when I was done reminiscing, and it did take a while, I remembered that the combination of pork chops and applesauce was quite good. Could it be that seitan really would work as well? Isa seemed to think so.

First let me say, Isa's recipe is probably seven billion times better than what I did but in spite of this, I was pretty pleased with the results. Also, I would never have come up with this in a thousand years if she hadn't written that post. So go over there and try hers, I'll join you when all my kids move out.

I was intrigued by her mention of using chickpea flour in place of nutritional yeast. I never thought of them as substitutes for each other. I figured what the heck and gave it a try. I used the very much simplified seitan recipe from Veganomicon as my base recipe. Holy cow, that is the simplest seitan recipe I've ever seen and it tastes great. Jim liked it much better than any of the other versions I make. I confess, I did bake my seitan for 1 1/2 hours at 325 degrees in a covered pan. I just like the texture so much better using this method.

Once my seitan was cooking, and warming up my once chilly kitchen, I pondered my next move. I had plenty of apples but with kids I walk a fine line. Did I dare include ginger? In the end, I opted to just chop 6 appples and simmer then down into applesauce. I added nothing to them because they are some of the tastiest Cortland apples I've ever encountered. BTW, I always leave the skins on the apples.

For a side dish, I chopped some onions, and carrots and sauteed them in olive oil before adding some bulgur. I served this along with a mixed green salad, probably one of the last of the year, compliments of our CSA.

Serving is important around here since the need to segregate food on the dinner plate is still a priority to some of my kids. I opted to put the applesauce next to the seitan rather than on top but I urged everyone to combine with reckless abandon.

The reaction was mixed as everyone came to the table, although I saw a gleam of recognition in Jim's eye (perhaps he too was channeling Peter Brady.) Once everyone got over their initial suspicion, the meal was a big hit. I'm definitely filing that one away for future use.

Here's What's New Today

I should be emptying furniture out of the living room but I've snuck away to write a quick post.

I finally started cuttting some of the jeans into squares, rectangles actually, for my latest quilt. I opted for rectangles because I had quite a few pairs of Jim's jeans that had completely worn out front of the legs while the back was pristine. This allowed me to cut larger pieces hence the rectangles. I'll salvage squares from the fronts of the legs. The finished quilt will be a mix of the squares and rectangles. I'll post pictures as it begins to come together. Right now its just a pile of fabric.

I've got two knitting projects going right now. One is a scarf which seems goofy in light of the warmer temperatures. The other is a log cabin blanket. I need to finish the scarf because I want to use the leftovers in the log cabin blanket. I also need to set aside some money to buy Mason-Dixon Knitting because I can only renew it one more time!!

We're still living off food from this weekend. Lunch today was sliced baked seitan with guacamole on homemade bread. YUM! Later today I'll be making some desserty thing and a breakfasty thing, although I'm not sure what. I need to see what dried fruit I still have before deciding. I can't wait until we get a little further into the growing season.

Speaking of the growing season, check out this brief article at Mother Earth News on perennial salad greens. How great is that? Salad greens that just appear in early spring year after year.

Now I'm off to empty that living room!

Pizza & Food on the Road Rundown

Pizza night was a smashing success. The extra dough is packed away in the freezer awaiting this Friday's version, which promised to be a bit more elaborate since the kids are off from school.

I made two pizzas using large cookie sheets for pans. This is enough to feed the whole crew. Round pans never work when making pizza for large families like ours. We went cheese free this time, topping one pizza with Spicy Vegetarian Sausage that I simmered in sauce for a bit and tomato chunks and the other with beans and sauce. I should have followed the recipe for the bean topping as planned but I fatigued out after a long day. I promise to follow the recipe this week so I can give a better review. We served the pizza with French onion soup per Kyle's request. This Friday we'll also make a vegan cheese to top one of the pizzas.

We brought some of the leftover sausage and sauce to the swim meet for Saturday's dinner. Lunch was a simple pb & j. The hit of the weekend was the banana muffins from Veganomicon that I made for breakfast and snacks. I added some hemp seeds to them for a little extra holding power. They were really yummy and the recipe was super simple. They weren't crumbly and they traveled well, what more could you ask for? Between the whole family we must have eaten three dozen of these over the weekend!

Sunday found us a little burnt out as we had to once again drive out to Long Island. (Why would anyone want to live there, the traffic is perpetually awful!) We packed only sandwiches and muffins this time since this was to be a shorter day. Also, they were selling fruit cups at the concession stand and, although they were pricey, we wanted to show our support so we bought two of them to fill things in. It made me crave warmer weather and the bounty of fresh fruit it brings!

I guess I should also mention that we brought our own coffee and water but I think at this point, its probably understood. We didn't have a huge amount of variety but I think we did ok considering how little time we had to get things ready.

BTW, I've continued to make yogurt several times a week with awesome results. I can't believe how easy this is or how well it works. I've been using what's left on the side of the container from my last batch to start the next batch and so far no problems. We're totally hooked on this. Its so good topped with granola and currants!

Stuff I Want & Stuff I Don't Want & Amazing Vegetarian Sausage!

Somewhere, perhaps in one of the many blogs I peruse or one of the lists I belong to or perhaps it was just in conversation, it was said that so much stuff is bought by people whimsically that the rest of us should never have to pay full price buying anything new again. I agree, I agree, I agree!

Sure there are some things that are so specialized, or personal like underwear, that buying new is necessary. Although, check out this link Chile showed me a few months back before committing to the underwear portion of the statement. I haven't tried making undies yet but this summer, when I have time on my hands and nothing to do except embarass my teenage daughters, I will do it!!

But I digress, in our area we have craigslist as well as several on line tag sale sites and of course freecycle, Reuse it network and freesharing too. Ebay is an option too. You can keep it local by narrowing your search by zip code. Of course your local thrift store has even more to offer.

We wanted a car top carrier to make the car a little roomier for trips upstate. We found one for less than half of what we'd have paid new thanks to a little sleuthing on our local craigslist.

We also wanted a covered litter box for the hurricane that is Otis.

He looks so cuddly innocent but he routinely causes little to fly around the room and scrapes the walls in an effort to cover his extra smelly poo. I was able to find a covered kitty box on our local ecycle (like freecycle but our group is no longer part of the freecycle network) list for free.

Now, I'm on the lookout for some double pointed knitting needles for a really easy sock pattern I just found in the book Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick. This pattern is called "Magic Spiral Tube Socks" and makes a chunkier sock with less shaping than traditional socks BUT it uses worsted weight yarn (read: easy to find in thrift stores or to unravel a sweater and recycle) and gives instructions for using up your scrap yarn to make stripes! I don't think you need to buy the book. I'd suggest taking it out from the library instead.

Our ecycle group lets us put out wanted posts which can make the process of finding things so much easier. What about you? Have you tried getting what you want from places other than the store?

Let's not forget, all the above resources are great places to rehome your unwanted stuff. Kids grow and tastes change. There are plenty of useful things that take up space in my home because they no longer fit or no longer hold a place in my heart. (Am I the only one who no longer cherishes the Precious Moments figurines that I just had to have in the early days of my marriage?) Purge your space while making someone elses day.

In food, we had an amazing success making Spicy Vegetarian Sausages. This was a huge hit among our family and our non-veg dinner guest this weekend. I didn't want to use the aluminum foil, so I tried using cheesecloth instead. Don't do it! We were picking strings out of the sausage for quite a while. Also, my steamer wasn't big enough and it ran out of water making a gunky mess. I wound up baking them, covered in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. In spite of my cooking disabilities that day, it was delicious!

In a less successful food venture, I've come to the conclusion that cardamom tastes and smells like the Lemon Pledge of my childhood. It tainted some apple muffins I made this weekend, not enough to make them inedible just enough to bother me.

The Healthy Cookie Quest

Ruthie & Allisone shared their favorite healthy cookie recipes with me. I really appreciated this since I still haven't peeked in a cookbook on my own yet. (There's actually a really good reason for this. When I attempted to put my cookbooks back in the cabinet that I keep them in, I discovered the cabinet seemed to be pulling out of the wall from their weight. Well...I do have a lot of cookbooks:) Now the cookbooks are in two enormous piles waiting for me to clear out a bookshelf to put them in - Jim is fixing the cabinet tonight but has requested I keep my five tons of cookbooks in an alternate location. They are not convenient to peruse at this time!)

Yesterday, for an after school snack, I whipped up the Banana Oatmeal Cookies that Ruthie suggested. These were easy and tasty, although my sons dislike date chunks no matter how small they are. I might try pureeing the dates next time or using raisins. Jim, the girls and I loved these and couldn't believe they had no added sugar.

The kids are off today so I'll be trying the other two suggested recipes with them, as well as continuing the organization extravaganza. (The boys' room is next on my hit list.) Also in the kitchen, there will be some preserving going on today to clear out the fridge for Saturday's CSA pickup. There are zucchinis to shred and freeze, tomatoes to turn into sauce, and greens to wilt and freeze.

I've really wanted to make seitan the last few days but haven't had the time. Last night I made Isa's seitan recipe, although I prefer the texture of Lachesis' Seitan O'Greatness. The problem was, I didn't have the time to dedicate to cooking the seitan, mixing up a batch takes no time at all. What's a girl to do?? This girl tried cooking it in the pressure cooker for 15 minutes on high. It actually turned out pretty good. I cubed it and served it with greens, red peppers, carrots and the marinade from the Jerk Seitan recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance as a sauce. (If I didn't have time to cook it, you know I definitely didn't have time to marinade it!) There were no leftovers so it must have been good.

I still stand by original assertion that my favorite seitan is baked seitan but in a pinch this worked out very well.

Baked Seitan, Can It Be??***UPDATE***

I read about this on Vivacious Vegan's blog, I've seen it on the PPK Forum and I've read it on Get Sconed. I have to try this recipe! I'm so intrigued by the possibilities.

I'm trying to put together Jim's bachelor dinners for the summer for nights when he's home alone. I did not do a good job on this last year. In fact, I did a terrible job on it. This year I'm off to a much better start. I've got an inventory sheet taped inside one of my kitchen cabinets and every time I add something to the freezer for him, I wrote it on the list. To make his world easier, he's not the world's most accomplished cook, I put what it is and prep instructions right on the container (ie black beans with barley and veggies, just heat and serve). I haven't calculated how many I need yet but I know I'm no where near having enough.

Now I'm off to try that seitan.

UPDATE
"Tofurkey!" my 6 yr old son shouted after taking a bite of my first attempt at baked seitan.

Jim said, "If I didn't see you cut it, I'd swear it was those veggie slices we sometimes buy."

The girls and my 7 yr old son couldn't really comment, their mouths were too full. Everyone took it for lunch today and there isn't a crumb left. Fortunately, this is a super simple recipe that takes very little time to put together. And yes, I did wash the aluminum foil that I cooked it in so I can use it again next time!

Seitan in the Slow Cooker

I upgraded to Blogger Beta yesterday and so far so good. Its going to take me quite a bit of time to organize my posts by topic but I'll try to do a few each day. Keep an eye on the Label list right above the archives.

Courtney asked how I cook seitan in the slow cooker. The short answer is, never from scratch. I've tried over and over again to make it from scratch in the slow cooker using Robin Robertson's recipes in Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker and I always end up with a rubbery mass. I don't know if its her recipe or if seitan from scratch just doesn't lend itself to the slow cooker experience. I may try the slow cooker again but using Isa's recipe this time.

Instead, I prefer to make seitan on the stove, let it cool (it makes the seitan firmer) and then cube it or slice it to use in the slow cooker. So when I made my concoction of seitan, quartered potatoes, cubed pumpkin and kale the other day, the seitan was already cooked. In fact, it was frozen (in its broth) and so was the cubed pumpkin. Both were cooked during my bulk cooking extravaganza.

I placed both the frozen pumpkin and the seitan into the slow cooker first and then filled in the spaces around them with the potatoes and kale. I added just enough water to cover the bottom of the slow cooker to prevent scorching while the broth was beginning to defrost. I placed the lid on and set the slow cooker on low for the day.

What Can You Do With Seitan?

Johanna wanted to know more about how I use seitan. It seems to me that you first have to find a good recipe for the seitan itself before you worry about how to use it. Isa Chandra Moskowitz provided that recipe in her awesome cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance. Luckily, she also posts it on her website. Honestly, if you use her recipe as a starting point, you can't go wrong.

Once the seitan has been cooked and cooled I use it in much the same way I use tofu. It works wonderfully in the Veggie Bacon Recipe, although mariniating it first is a must. This weekend we tried it as an addition to our potato scramble with very good results as well. Its great pan fried in barbeque sauce or other sauce (Like Isa's Jerk sauce.) You can also slice it thinly and use it in sandwiches with mustard. Truth be told, my daughters will both eat it right out of the cooking broth with no additional seasoning.


I'd like to try it simmered in tomato sauce as a meatball replacement but I haven't tried it yet. If anyone has, please share your results.

On another note, I've discovered that the search my blog archives function is not working as well as I'd hoped. If this blog is to be a really useful resource, I'm going to need to add an topic index. My quick perusal of blogger.com leads me to believe I need to upgrade to blogger Beta to do this. Life is currently too busy for me to give this my full attention but know that changes are on the horizon!