Roasted Eggplant and Spinach Muffuletta Sandwiches

I suck. I know it. I'm trying to get better. I think about blogging every single day, it's just finding the time or energy to actually do it... I do have lots of pictures, though, so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things.

Stupid weather again. It was so cold here for so long. I felt tortured! It seems like every single other person I know was saying that it's one of the hottest summers in years and Vancouver still had the heat on... in June. I know... it's ridiculous. Now it's hot as all get out. Most of us are doing our best to spend a ton of time outside to enjoy the warmth. And living in a city where most apartments don't have air conditioning... not exactly making you want to turn on the oven. I did make some cupcakes last night and even though I waited until later to make them, it still made my already hot apartment into something just short of hellfire. Looks like it's salads and quick meals for me for a while.

I'm trying to throw together some ideas for vegan picnic foods. Any ideas? The idea is to have stuff that omnis will like as well, so nothing with too much nooch. I'd also like to steer clear of things that need forks and spoons just to make the eating easier and so I don't have to realize we can't eat because I've forgotten utensils. That would be very like me to do.

One thing that would be great is the Roasted Eggplant and Spinach Muffuletta Sandwich from Veganomicon. I've made these to take to work a few times and let me just say - yum! The recipe says to let the sandwiches sit overnight, but don't do that. You'll end up with soggy bread and then you'll be all grossed out and not want to eat it. The second time I made these I made all of the stuff for the sandwich the night before and just stuck it in the fridge. Then I made the sandwiches in the morning before I left for work. I think it was around 6 hours or so for the flavors to meld together. That was a perfect amount of time. Nothing was soggy and everything was delicious.

Also, that'll make a ton of tapenade so you have some left for dipping crackers or veggies in. I think it would also be a great appetizer type thing for a party. Well, for people that like olives, that is. And for the people that don't... well, more for me. :)

I used garlic stuff olives when I made it instead of buying green olives and pickled garlic. It was easier and faster and I discovered that not only do garlic stuffed olives give you very bad breath, they're quite yummy. I suggest you convince your signifigant other to like them too or else you're going to need to stock up on some mints.

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

I know I promised these a good while ago. I've been really distracted by the weather lately. First it was so beautiful it was a crime not to be outside at all times and then as fickle as the weather can be, it changed to yucky. It's been raining for a solid week. Not the normal little spits of rain we usually get in Vancouver, but yucky, hard rain. All day, every day, with not even a tiny break of just sorta cloudy. Well, until yesterday evening. The sun came out, but it was still cold. Dang it. And it's grey and cold again this morning. Sounds like a good weekend to make a pot of soup and hibernate. That's what I plan to do at least.

If it's sunny where you are, or even if you're trying to pretend it is like I am, take advantage of some fresh strawberries and make these cupcakes. You won't be sorry. The actual cupcake isn't as light and fluffy as some. And that's not a bad thing! It's more like something you want to put strawberries and whipped cream on. :) I have a few ideas for ways to jazz these up a bit more, but didn't think of them until after I made them. You could spread a thin layer of strawberry jam on the cupcakes before you frost them. You could even pipe some jam or pureed strawberries into the center of the cupcakes like a filling. Yum. You could also add a bit of lemon or orange zest to the batter. That would really accentuate the sweetness of the strawberries.

I used the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cooked frosting recipe for these. It's not only my favorite frosting, but it's not really sweet and a bit reminiscent of whipped cream. A perfect topping for these summery yummies.

I pretty much just grabbed a handful of strawberries and cut them up to put into the batter. I can't remember exactly how much I used, so just use as many or as little as you want. I had quite a bit. Don't forget that this will also increase your cupcake yield, so you'll get more than 12.

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

1 cup soymilk (minus 1 Tbsp to counteract the juiciness of your berries)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine, softened (like Earth Balance)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon or orange extract
about 1 cup strawberries chopped into smallish pieces

Preheat your oven to 350F. Do your muffin liner thing or grease your muffin pan. Whisk the soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl and set aside 5-10 minutes to curdle.

Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Stir it up to combine. In a separate large bowl, cream the margarine and sugar for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and lemon extract. Now beat in the soymilk mixture and dry mixture in alternate separate batches just until combined. Don't over-beat or your cupcakes will get tough. You just want it to be combined.

Fold in the chopped strawberries. Fill your cupcake pan cups about 2/3 full. Bake 20 to 22 minutes. Set aside to cool on a wire rack. Make sure they're cool before you frost them!


Old-Fashioned Velvet Icing (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
1/4 cup margarine
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup superfine, castor or powdered sugar

In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the flour and soy milk. Stir constantly until the mixture starts to thicken and has a pudding-like consistency, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool 2 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and press plastic wrap onto the top of custard to prevent a skin from forming. Allow mixture to cool completely before the next step. (This is very important, as warm pudding will melt the shortening and margarine.) If you're impatient like me, stick the bowl into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to cool it off.

Cream together the shortening, margarine, vanilla and sugar then beat in cold custard. Beat with an electric mixer for 4 to 6 minutes; frosting should become lighter in color and have a very creamy texture, similar to very thick whipped cream.

Frost on cooled cupcakes and place sliced strawberries on top.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

I have been wanting to make the Tiramisu Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for weeks now. First I kept forgetting to buy Kahlua and then I would get busy and think I'd do it later. For some reason I was thinking these were going to be really complicated and take a long time to make. But no! They're just as fast as regular cupcakes, you probably take less than 5 minutes to cut out the centers and add the coffee/Kahlua mixture to the cake parts. So really, you have no more excuses for not making these. They're quite yummy.

I did think that the cream cheese frosting was way too sweet for me. When I make these again, I think I'll only add about half the powdered sugar. I might experiment with adding more of the faux cream cheese to see if I can get more of a less sweet, but still creamy sort of thing like real tiramisu has. I realize these are cupcakes and cupcakes have frosting, but I'm just weird like that.

I'm one of those that scrapes the frosting off of cupcakes so there's only a very thin layer left on top. Unless it's the cooked frosting recipe that's in VCTOTW with the red velvet cupcakes. That one is my favorite. It's so creamy and light and not too sweet. Perfect, but it doesn't really go with every flavor of cupcake.

Coming soon - a recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes. :D

A Soup for All Seasons

Before I say anything else, I have to say that this might just be my favorite soup ever. Yes, ever. I think I liked it even more because I was slightly skeptical about it before I made it. Not that I thought it would be bad, Isa has never led me wrong so far. I just hadn't ever really had a soup that was like this. The closest thing was split pea or lentil soup, which aren't even close at all.

As the weather starts to warm and the markets are starting to fill up with fresh produce, a lot of us are looking for lighter meals than we did all winter. It's probably a good idea, especially if you ate as many cupcakes as comfort food as I probably did in the fall and winter. At this point you might be wondering if I'm having some sort of weird issue with writing this post. Okay... she's talking about soup. Now she's talking about summer and eating lighter... Okay, SaraJane, let's just sit down and look at some pretty cupcake pictures. That's a good girl.

But no! This soup is good no matter what season it is, I tell ya! Vegan with a Vengeance's White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup is fan-freaking-tastic. It's light enough to have by itself as a meal without feeling all thick like you might after eating a heavier stew (or the aforementioned split pea soup or the like). Why not make some and have a cup with a sandwich? I've been addicted to some grilled sandwiches with faux cheese slices, tomatoes, sprouts and avocado. Yum! (put the sprouts and avocado on last, but grill it with the tomatoes already inside, between two vegan cheese slices.)

Another great thing about this soup, that's even better for the busier days of spring and summer? It's fast and very, very easy. If you have an immersion blender, it's even easier and you have only one pot to wash. If you don't have an immersion blender, I highly recommend it. You can get one for around $30. They're fantastic for blending soups, making hummus, pesto, and smoothies without making a big mess like a food processor or blender might.

Also - if you still don't have Vegan with a Vengeance, go out and buy it. It's the best cookbook I've ever owned. Hands down.


White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup (from Vegan with a Vengeance)

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon salt
a few dashes of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
4 cups vegetable broth
3 cups great northern or navy beans, drained and rinsed
3 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 bay leaf
juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste
2 heads of garlic, roasted (yes, heads, not cloves)

To roast the garlic: Preheat your oven to 350. Get as much of the papery stuff off the garlic as you can. Set them on a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Let them cool for at least 10 minutes before you start getting the rest of the papery stuff off. It comes off easily, but even easier if it's not still really freaking hot.

In a soup pot over medium-high heat, saute the onion with the olive oil for about 5-7 minutes. Add the salt, pepper and fennel and cook for another minute or so. Add the broth, beans, sage and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf and add the roasted garlic. Remove from heat and puree in batches in a food processor or blender, or if you're super awesome like me, use your immersion blender and have less dishes to wash. Add everything back to the pot if you did it the blender/processor way otherwise, it's still in the pot. Add the lemon juice and stir to combine.

Serve garnished with fresh fennel leaves or grated carrots or parsley. Enjoy!

Makes 6 servings.

Things that are Awesome - Heirloom Tomatoes

Heirloom tomatoes are awesome and you should grow some. Seriously, if you've never tried this type of tomato, you are going to be sooo excited come July and August. These tend to be more expensive, but they're only in season for a very short period of time and it's well worth it. Plus, they're cool looking.



So, yeah, it's not time for Heirloom tomatoes to start showing up in the markets just yet. But - if you have a garden or a patio/balcony where you can put a pot and grow some tomatoes, this post is for you. Sadly, I have the opposite of a green thumb, whatever that is (a black thumb?) so I won't be killing any tomato plants this year. But you should! Seriously, do it.

You can get certified organic seeds from Sur La Table. Yeah, I know, it's a chain store, blah, blah, blah, but these seeds are not only organic, but they come from a family farm in California. It says so right here. These guys should be giving me commission on this! I just got excited when I saw this and wished that I could actually grow things. I'm sure someone out there might want to. :D

Carrot Muffins and Linkage!

Because I can't bear to post without pictures, here are some of yummy Carrot Raisin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. This was the first time I've made these. I don't know why I skipped them for so long. The VWAV muffins are my very favorite muffins to make. Yum! For some reason I expected these muffins to be super sweet like carrot cake, but - they were very nice and breakfasty, not cupcakey at all. The muffins I ate the next day were awesome cut in half, toasted lightly in the toaster oven and smeared with Earth Balance. Sooo good.

And even if you eat like 6 of them in one sitting, you can just tell yourself how great it is that you're eating so many carrots while you're doing it. Because we all know that carrots are good for you. So how can you go wrong?

Now for the getting down to business portion of the program. I need to add some links! Because I am quite forgetful and potentially distracted by shiny objects, give me a comment if you're not in my links and would like to be. :D Or you can just comment to tell me how freaking cute alpacas are. Because they are. Yes they are!!! Stop it. You're wrong. They're cute, so there. I knew you'd see it my way.

Kitties!

There are so many pictures of my cat, Piper, on the blog. I do have two other cats, so I wanted to show them being cute, too. Whenever I'm cooking, Piper loves to be in the kitchen. She usually sits on the top of the refrigerator and watches me. Sometimes she jumps down and tries to help, too. ;)

The other two pretty much decide to go in the living room and be as cute as possible in hopes that I'll leave the kitchen and give them lots of pets. It's a tried and true cat method. I mean, seriously. How could you resist this?

Or this?

:D And I wanted to share how beautiful Vancouver is in the spring. These pictures are from two weeks ago. If you can imagine, there are actually more trees bursting with blossoms now. It's amazingly beautiful. Even the air smells fragrant in some places.

Check me out. Two posts in one day! :D