Bagel Egg and Cheese

everything bagel
egg
cream cheese
tomato
vegetarian sausage

A btw: Thanksgiving is upon us. Expect light posting in the coming days as I strangely don't expect to be doing any holiday cooking at all.

But here's a holiday treat in the form of a little story about the sandwich above. Though the bagel egg and cheese isn't memorable for its uniqueness, it is uniquely memorable to me. In college I worked at a really wonderful and odd place called The Halfass. We served terrible/delicious (terribly delicious?) food to the lovable long-haireds in East Quad. Among these items: ham spread with cream cheese, wrapped around a hot dog and deep fried; the spanjo (see link); and a straight ahead version of this bagel sandwich. Bagel. Egg. Cheese.

Despite the greasy, limited resources available, I did learn a lot about cooking from that place. In the true spirit of the Residential College, this learning was made of creative inquiry, experimentation, and beating the fear of failure. There were some successes: bonuts! (deep fried bagels), sloppy soy! (vegetarian sloppy joes), pita pizzas! (like they sound). And there were some failures: a deep fryer can not/will not produce a hard boiled egg.

Overall, The Halfass was a large and lovely part of my life for several years. So the bagel egg and cheese is more-than-sandwich. It's a juicy bite of nostalgia. And that, by the way, is the same delicious ingredient that makes Thanksgiving so welcome.

Butternut Squash + Hazelnut Lasagna

Friends, I'm back. And I made something really delicious to celebrate.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Dear friends, please pardon my absence this week. I've been sitting in a dark room for days trying to move as little as possible (headaches are kind of goth).

I hope to emerge soon, but in the meantime, please enjoy these menus for a delicious vegetarian Thanksgiving (or three!). As my friend Rob said, they're so delicious, they're practically NSFW.

Portabella Fajitas

For the fajita filling:

4 cloves garlic, minced
juice of one lime
1/4 tsp dry cumin
pinch salt or to taste
2 tb olive oil
1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1/2 large onion, sliced
1/2 jalapeño, chopped small
2 portabella mushrooms, sliced
3 tomatillos, boiled for one minute, cooled, then peeled and sliced
cilantro to garnish

Combine the garlic, lime juice, cumin and salt. Set aside.

In a large skillet (I used a wok), heat the olive oil over high heat (don't worry if it smokes a little; do worry if it smokes a lot, and in that case, turn the heat down a bit). Add the peppers, onion, and jalapeño. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the lime juice mixture. Stir in the mushrooms and tomatillos. Cook for a few more minutes, until the mushrooms are tender but not soggy.

Serve with refried beans and brown rice. I topped it all off with sour cream and some fresh salsa. The salsa turned out not-so-lively because tomatoes in November are not-so-lively. I'd recommend using canned tomatoes in times like these, unless you kept accidentally buying more and more tomatoes until you had to do something with them before they went bad.

Salsa:

5 medium tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped (or about 2 cans tomatoes, rinsed, drained and chopped)
1/2 cup shallots, coarsely chopped
1/3 green pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 red pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 jalapeño, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tb cilantro
salt to taste
juice of 1-2 limes

Put the first seven ingredients in a food processor and process as much as you like. Pour the salsa into a strainer, salt to taste, and let drain for about 10 minutes. Once drained, pour the salsa in a bowl and squeeze in/stir in the lime juice.

Guest Post: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over Chicago

Last weekend my friend Laura and I got together to bake. Well, she did most of the baking while I sat drinking hot cider and chatting. Luckily, our host baker has agreed to be a guest blogger, bringing us this delicious post.


So, it's November in Chicago. And it gets dark here – like seriously, pretty darn Dark – right around the time you leave your office. You go to work in the morning and the lake is a nasty greenish white, and you come home from work in the Dark and the sky is spitting little lobs of white on your nice black cap. And there is nothing for it, let's be honest, but to eat lots, and to eat with your friends.

Which is why Becky and I decided to make chocolate cupcakes last weekend. Vegan chocolate cupcakes, actually. Which are possibly better than regular cupcakes, and easy, too (no flaxseed oil! no wheat germ!). They are rich, delicious, and incredibly moist, a word I find difficult to even write without cringing, which should give you an idea of how yummy they are.

The recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Its authors have an entertaining blog of their own, which remains entertaining despite not having been updated since October 2007. "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" was published in October 2006, so we should give them a break, and also go buy their book at your favorite local bookseller.

The recipe is available from the Washington Post. Or you can join us here for this retelling.

Anyway, here are the ingredients:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil (I used vegetable oil instead, which I think is okay)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract, chocolate extract or more vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

And here's what you do. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (did I mention that this was a great November recipe?) and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle (I don't quite know what curdling looks like. Becky whisked this combo together for a minute or two and the bubbles just sat there. So maybe bubbles = curdling, I don't know. Either way they turned out pretty good).

Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract (if using) to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. (I'm generally too lazy to sift, but I went ahead and followed these directions, and I think that was a good idea).

In two batches, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).

Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

You can make yummy frosting for them, too.

Just beat together 1/4 cup vegan shortening with 1/4 cup vegan margarine and then add 1 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar, a bit of vanilla, and a smidge of soy milk. If you want to be crazy (and we did) you can crumble up some Newman-Os (or other vegan sandwich cookie) and add them to the mix.

The frosting will end up looking a lot like the side of the road does in January, but don't let that deter you. It's really good!

Apple and Brie Sandwich

bread (homemade no-knead, in this case)
brie
apple slices

Chunky Corn Chowder

When corn is in season, I'm usually not in the mood for a steamy chowder. Frozen corn works just fine here.

1 russet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups milk
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tb butter
3 cups corn kernels
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and white pepper

When boiling the potato, use only enough water to cover the cubes by about 1/2 an inch. Boil until well cooked. Reserve the potato water. Mash the potatoes and blend with the milk. Set aside.

Saute the carrots, celery, and onion in the butter until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic and continue cooking for a couple minutes. Stir in the mashed potato/milk mixture. If you want a thinner broth, stir in as much reserved potato water as you like. I used all mine, about 1 1/2 - 2 cups. Stir in the corn. Bring the soup to a boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes until slightly thickened. Whisk in the sour cream and season to taste.

I served this with some easy homemade croutons:

2 cups cubed, day-old (or several-day-old) bread
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tb butter
1/4 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Saute the garlic in 1 tb of butter. When fragrant, but not browned, remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 tsp fresh thyme leaves and 1/4 tsp salt. In a baking dish, spread the bread cubes out in a single layer. Pour the melted butter mixture over the bread. Stir to coat. Bake for about 10 minutes or until crunchy.

Tempeh Shepherd's Pie

8 Yukon gold potatoes
1 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
4 tb butter
15-20 pearl onions, blanched for one minute, cooled, and peeled
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 celery root, peeled and chopped
2 turnips, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
4 kale leaves, stem removed and leaves chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1, 8 oz package of tempeh, crumbled
1 can tomatoes, with their juice
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Boil the potatoes. Meanwhile, saute 1 of the turnips and 1/2 the celery root in 2 tb butter. Once soft, add to the cooked potatoes along with the grated Romano. Mash and stir everything together with 1 cup milk. Salt and (white) pepper to taste.

Over lowish heat, saute the blanched and peeled onions in 2 tb butter until they begin to brown and caramelize. Add the carrots, 1/2 the celery root, 1 of the turnips, and the celery. Cook, covered, until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the thyme, bay leaf, kale, and tempeh. Cook, covered, for a few more minutes. Stir in the tomatoes. If the mixture is still a little dry, add 1/2 cup or so of the potato water or some vegetable stock. Continue cooking, uncovered, until the vegetables are soft but not falling apart. Season to taste.

If you've cooked the vegetables in an oven-safe dish, simply cover the mixture with mashed potatoes. Otherwise, transfer the vegetable mixture to a baking dish, then cover with the potatoes. Bake for about 15 minutes until piping hot.

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
3 tb melted butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup blueberries

Make a quick walnut crumble by blending together:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 tb melted butter

Combine first three ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar, melted butter, egg, and milk until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend by hand until just incorporated. Carefully stir in half of the walnut crumble, then the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins. Top with remaining crumble and and bake at 400 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes.

(Adapted from several Mark Bittman recipes)

Open Faced Tomato Sandwich

With yesterday's bulbous bread, my favorite sandwich:

buttered bread
tomato
muenster cheese
garlic salt

, toasted under the broiler.

More Bread

I made more bread. It turned out to be no aesthetic masterpiece, but simple and delicious all the same.

Guest Post: Victory Loaves

It's quickly becoming bread-baking week around here. In other, fantastic news, Barack Obama is our President-elect! In honor of bread and Barack, I bring you this victoriously educational guest post from my friend Glenn.


A great candidate deserves a great bread because, well, man does not live by presidential politics alone.

I baked these victory loaves on Monday morning, adapting the sourdough recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. The scoring was done with a serrated knife. The sourdough starter I use is a bit wetter than Reinhart and others suggest, so I used a little less water than recommended. I used the Joy of Cooking recipe to get my sourdough starter started. Now I keep it in the refrigerator (in an old applesauce jar) and refresh it about once a week with:

1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. water

A few notes on sourdough starters: First, this isn't as hard as some folks make it sound. Yeast is in the air and on the flour grains; when combined with water, it will wake up and eat away. Any sourdough starter recipe should work--the simpler the better, if you ask me. Also, any sourdough starter can work for any sourdough recipe, though you might have to make adjustments to the water ratio. For example, my starter is quite wet, so I err on the side of less water when mixing the final dough.

Once every month or so, I refresh the starter with whole-wheat flour instead of wheat. This tends to the give the final bread a nuttier flavor.

If you forget about refreshing, don't worry. It should perk up, unless you haven't fed the starter in over a month.

Most importantly, I've found that 4 hours after refreshing is the best time to start the bread using your sourdough starter. If the starter is too hungry or too full, it won't rise correctly.

Thanks to Becky for asking me for this guest post.

Broetchen

I made broetchen from my husband's grandfather's recipe.

Apple Tart

My friend Laura and I made an apple tart!

No-Knead Bread

I made No-Knead Bread!

Corn Cakes

1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tb melted butter
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 jalapeño pepper, chopped very small
1/2 small onion, chopped very small

Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients and vegetables. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir to combine. Pour batter onto buttered hot griddle. Flip after a few minutes to cook the second side.

Potato Tomato Pizza

Pizza continues to be delicious.

Toppings:
garlic
tomatoes
thinly sliced potatoes sauteed in a little butter
vegetarian sausage

I used the same dough recipe as usual.