Don't Hate

Vealburger cooking


Vealburger on toast with coarse mustard, jarlsburg, spinach, tomato, onion

Challenge Entry: The Cucone

Meet the cucone.

Based on the bacone.


Here's me holding it.

Here's that guy with his.


The bacone is a cone make of cooked bacon filled with scrambled eggs, cheese, country gravy, and topped with a biscuit. The cucone is a cone made of peeled cucumber, filled with poached egg whites, goat cheese, and topped with a piece of smoked salmon.

I'd say this guy speaks entirely for himself, but... Boo-Yah!!!

Excellent Bowl

If you looked into the meat and potatoes type meal, you'd find hundreds of ethnic variations. I decided I'd make my own. It was kind of a bizzaro Shepard's Pie. On the bottom is mashed potatoes with garlic and cheese with peas mashed into them. Then I diced up some onion and cooked it with this ground beef style tofu I had. I put all the potatoes into the bowl and then hollowed out a little space for the meat and onion and then topped it with tonkatsu sauce. I was gonna use steak sauce but I figured the tonkatsu would give it an interesting fruity kick. It was an excellent combo. Definitely filling. After one bowl I felt like I couldn't move. Exactly what I needed on one of my nights off.

I just ate my first soy yogurt

It was a lemon WholeSoy & Co. I have to say it was almost exactly the same as regular yogurt, maybe a little nuttier. Could have done without the lemon shards, but otherwise a pretty fulfilling yogurt experience. For anyone who is unfamiliar, soy yogurt is made exactly the same way as regular dairy yogurt (but with some sugar added to feed the yogurt bacteria...see wikipedia) and has the same probiotic benefits.

Into it!

Family Dinner

When you can't eat steak, tofu steak. Yup, that's right. Tofu steak. I was shitting around with John and told him that I would take care of the sides and he could make the steak. Being that we're communally vegetarian in this house, tofu steak. He let the tofu marinate in steak sauce and then coated them in flower and seasonings and fried them up with onions and mushrooms. At the end I pulled them out and threw some wine in with the veggies and reduced for a sauce. I also made some mashed potatoes with cheddar cheese and garlic. While the potatoes were boiling I threw my new bamboo steamer on the top as a lid and put broccoli in the bottom and spinach in the top. Just a little al dente for those real veggie lovers.

Here's everything all ready to go. We called Kyler in and sat down for a home cooked family dinner. It was excellent. Here's a picture of the boys sitting down to chow.

The pictures were all rushed because I totally forgot to charge my camera! Anyway it was an excellent departure from the foreign one panners that we all usually try to throw together. And there were leftovers!

Just so you know...

Pringles ARE potato chips.

seitan doggie dogs

YES! Seitan Dogs!! As promised, I have created the home made veggie dog that trumps extruded paste dogs from your grocer's freezer. I made a double batch of seitan this time, half of which went to one big log for sandwich slice purposes, and the rest I rolled into mini logs for dog purposes. The seitan dough was much harder to shape than I thought. You can kind of get it into an ellipse, but the rest happens when it gets rolled into the foils.

Dan had a bag of sweet whole wheat dog buns from WW, so I toasted up a dog right out of the oven for added crispiness, along with the bun. I was set to put all kinds of fussy toppings on there, but he said hot dogs should only be topped with mustard and ketchup, which was a good point. I still couldn't completely help myself, and served it in an origami-ed wax paper carriage.

Addendum: I was really proud of this photo. I shot it on a white countertop, lit by the stove light at a very fast film speed and shallow depth of field. It only required a little color correction.

So, I made a pretty ok sandwich.

I opened the fridge around lunch time. Opening the fridge reminds me most of the time of cooking plans that didn't materialize. Like that basil that was on its way out because I wasn't getting stoked on the pesto I was supposed to make this week. So I told myself to get off my ass and make good.

Whole wheat bread from the fridge had to do. No time to bake my own, though it's easy enough. I like the No Knead recipe because who has time to really do the whole bread baking thing? It's surprisingly good for how little effort is involved.

I made a pretty standard pesto: basil, pine nuts, salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic.

The day before, I tried a new seitan recipe that requires baking rather than boiling. I really love this concept. I altered the seasoning a little (it is reminiscent of pepperoni) and maybe in the future it would be fun to do a stuffed version. I think there is also potential there for a veggie dog that is not just a bunch of extruded soy paste. (Another shortcut confession: I used vital wheat gluten flour rather than forcing the gluten out of wheat dough which takes 8796984 hours.)

Ugh boiled seitan. Talk about disaster stories. I challenge anyone to tell me that their boiled seitan was anywhere near baked in quality. Or even approached store-bought.
Anyway. Sauteed the seitan with some spinach that was turning in the fridge as well.

Bang. Sandwich. Stacked on some carrot matchsticks and sliced avocado. Then I ate it. It was fine.

In conclusion: Sammich challenge? Stuff turning in the fridge challenge?

Spicy + Chocolate. I don't know why I am thinking about you right now.

Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding. Can be adapted as mexican hot chocolate (with soy milk)! The one at Raymond's is the best, with a homemade (cubic) marshmallow in it.

Ask Ben about his green tea chocolate tofu pudding. If you want.

I made these Chile Brownies for a Superbowl party. They were too spicy! But it is fun to watch people's faces when they eat something that they didn't anticipate having a kick.

I'd say if you are going to do a spicy chocolate thing, and you can't get your hands on chile powder (milder than chili powder), go chipotle but don't use too much. It has a smoky flavor that complements the chocolate. I'm putting it in everything these days. Tomato sauce even.

Great Moments in Tofu

I invite everyone who has not seen Sympathy for Lady Vengeance to do so. I've had this scene on repeat in my head for the past hour and a half and its making it hard to sleep. This is most likely due to the fact that Meredith and I will be embarking on a tofu challenge in the near future. Inquire within to join us!

Kyler and John spin burritos

Kyler and I made some burritos the other night (for Cinco de Mayo) and were out of rice. Working with what we had, we turned to potatoes instead as the starch to hold these veggies together.

Pick your favorite veggies out of the drawer and start frying, starting with the most dense ones. Ex: Potatoes, then carrots, then onions, peppers, then beans and spinach. Of course this is open to interpretation. Mix in some ground chipotle pepper and salt. Serve with lettuce, cheddar cheese, salsa, and sour cream fix’ins.

Make bad jokes while you’re at it:

K: What do pirates eat to get their carbohydrates while out at sea?

J: I dunno, what?

K: Starrrrches!

K: Where do fortunate pirate families get to send their kids in urban areas?

J: Charrrrter schools?

K: Seeeeck!