pumpkin spice muffins

Vegan With a Vengeance was one of the first vegan cookbooks I got after making the switch, and The Best Pumpkin Muffins recipe quickly became one of my favorites. Isa’s not kidding around with the title of these muffins—they’re amazing. However, part of the reason for this deliciousness might be that the recipe calls for 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1 1/4 cups sugar. Throw some chocolate ganache on these puppies and you could easily pass them off as cupcakes. And while I’m all for eating cupcakes for breakfast, I believe that should be a special—i.e. rare—event. And I believe these muffins should be eaten frequently, especially during the fall.

autumn breakfasts

This is just a quick post to say eat a good breakfast on chilly fall mornings. Make some oatmeal, drizzle on some maple syrup, and sprinkle some granola on top for crunch. Enjoy a strong cup of coffee.  And remember to put on some slippers or your feet will get cold.

zucchini fritters and lemon garlic aioli

I mentioned a while back that when I was in Boston, I had an incredible dinner at a restaurant called Oleana. It was an epic meal, one that lasted for hours as I reconnected with friends I hadn’t seen in years. I had wanted to order the vegetarian tasting menu, but the waiter said the kitchen was too busy to veganize it that evening. My friend Patrick got it, though, and I stole many bites from the vegan bits on his plate. The rest of us just split a bunch of appetizers before our main course—warm olives with za’atar, bean and walnut paté, and zucchini fritters. By the time my “vegan plate” of roasted seasonal vegetables arrived, I was stuffed, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying every bite. It also didn’t stop me when the Sicilian cremolata was served—a rich almond-based ice cream. Nor did it stop me from helping myself to Patrick’s dessert—an herb-infused sweet sauce with liquor and berries and some kind of sherbet. I know not what it was, only that it was the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.

maple-glazed pear galette

In the movie Waitress, the main character names her pies after whatever life events inspire her to bake them. There’s “I Hate My Husband Pie,” “Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse Pie,” and “Baby Screamin’ Its Head Off in the Middle of the Night and Ruinin’ My Life Pie.” I’m calling this maple-glazed pear galette the “Try to Keep It Together for Just a Few More Days” pie.

raw beet ravioli

The CSA has provided some gorgeous beets this summer. Generally, I simply served them roasted, but on one particularly hot day, I thought I’d experiment  by trying this recipe by Sarma Melngailis. The outer ravioli shell simply consists of thinly sliced beets, marinated for about half an hour to soften them. They’re stuffed with a blended pine-nut concoction that has a texture similar to goat cheese. A rosemary “cream” sauce (also pine-nut based) is drizzled around the plate for extra flavor.

for the love of toast

The art of toast. I seem to have perfected it. What? You’ve never really considered toast to be something worthy of elevation to an art form? Well, when you eat it as often as I do, you find a way. It all started a couple summers ago, on a trip to England. I grumbled about it for weeks—the fact that the whole trip, due to my totally unadventurous dining companions, I ended up eating beans on toast for at least one meal a day. Occasionally I’d have the exciting other vegan option: beans in a jacket potato. It was an exciting trip, culinary-wise, let me tell you. 

How I Spent My Summer

I know, I know.  It’s been a long time.  Much has happened, and nothing has changed. Well, that’s not true. I have a new kitchen—a new kitchen with ample counter space and cabinets!

grilled pizza. oh. yeah.

I was a little nervous going into this experiment, especially since we had to improvise with the crust recipe… But grilled pizza is amazing!  The crust was nice and crispy on the bottom, with a gentle smoked flavor throughout.  We opted for a thick layer of basil pesto instead of tomato sauce, topped with a random assortment of vegetables—sliced tomatoes and artichokes for me.  (My friend Doug added mozzarella cheese to his side of the pizza.)

kale spanakopita

The new season of Weeds has started, which means biweekly dinners at the home of L&K, who have a ginormous TV on which to follow a suburban mom’s hilarious misadventures in the drug underworld. I can’t say I’ve loved any season of the show more than the first, but it’s still pretty damn good. We chose a Mediterranean theme for our first week’s dinner: I made spanakopita using the recipe in Vegan With a Vengeance, substituting kale for spinach because that’s what you gotta do when your CSA gives you kale. Flossie made a great Greek salad with homemade tofu “feta” that tasted very little like feta but was quite tasty nonetheless. 

csa stir-fry

I made a simple stir-fry for dinner tonight, incorporating several CSA ingredients—bok choy, peas, and cilantro. There’s nothing fancy to share here, just some boiled soba noodles and pan fried tofu, served with stir-fried veggies (with ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and tamari for flavor).  It’s not the prettiest or fanciest of dishes, but it’s quick and easy and tasty enough. After spending a good chunk of the day outside, weeding, I appreciated the saltiness of the soy sauce.

The garden is coming along nicely. When I put out tomato cages just a couple of weeks ago, the plants were dwarfed by the wire frames; now they’ve more than doubled in size, peeking out over the tops.

All in all it was a pretty quiet weekend. Spent time with friends, putzed around the house and yard, and watched a few mediocre romantic comedies that instilled a longing to be in a city—not live in a city, mind you, just spend time in one. 

 

Luckily I’ve got a trip to Boston coming up in July.  I’ll hang out with friends for a few days (and check out the yoga scene), and then I’ll head up to New Hampshire to visit with my mom. As much as I love living in Iowa City, occasionally I just need to go somewhere big enough that I can walk around without seeing anyone I know.