Let's Roast!

Veggies that is! I have been roasting vegetables like crazy the last few days. The oven has been keeping our house warm through this Texas winter cold snap! Wednesday night I was starving when I got home and so I fixed the tamari roasted chickpeas from ED&BV. Where have these been all my life? I ate close to the whole can of beans and still wanted more. I managed to save a couple to add to my dinner plate.

Amazing that I still had an appetite after all those legumes! The roasted items for dinner were: portobello mushroom (marinated in red wine, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, etc), brussels sprouts, and red bell pepper. And on the side some steamed swiss chard and quinoa. I discovered just how much I love balsamic glace swirled on my plate (makes it so fancy!) and sopped up with roasted veggies. This stuff is worth searching out and buying!

And alongside a salad last night, we had perfectly roasted cauliflower, tossed with just a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and finished with lemon juice and fresh parsley.
A healthy start to the new year, if I do say so myself! Oh, and I took another step towards fulfilling my resolutions and signed up for an 8-hour cake decorating course here in Houston (spread out over four weekends). And thankfully, we get to bring our own icing and cake, so I can ensure that they are vegan :-) Can't wait to report on my learnings... Enjoy the first weekend of 2008!

My Camera is Spooked

Yes, something is wrong with my camera. Ever since the Halloween party, my pics have turned out very fuzzy. What's wrong? I don't think it's user error, since I took like 20 pictures of the same thing to test. It must be bewitched.....
But, regardless of my camera problems, I will go ahead and show you my Halloween meal, beginning with dessert! I made the gingerbread cookies from JOVB, plus this sounded like a good way to get rid of the rest of my cupcake frosting from the weekend. The process was a little finicky, the dough seemed really dry until I added some water. I am also not very skilled at rolling out dough evenly yet. But in the end, the cookies turned out well, crisp but not too crunchy, just the way I like my gingerbread (I cooked them on the short side of the suggested time). I even got to use my seasonal cookie cutters for the first time! First a happy pumpkin with my cute skulls mini-bag from here on etsy....

And a fall leaf...
For dinner, I was excited to try my first recipe from ED&BV! Yep, I got it (and Veganomicon, still trying to decide where to start with that one!) a few days ago and now I'm officially overwhelmed with recipes. So I started with something simple that Dreena had also blogged about, the Cashew-Ginger Tofu. Served over quinoa with roasted Halloween colored vegetables (butternut squash, carrot, parsnip). Ooops, forgot to turn the oven down when I put in the tofu, so the sauce got pretty thick and pasty. My bad. But I enjoyed the flavor nonetheless. Oh, except for the parsnips. This was my first time eating them, and something about the roasting really dried them out and I thought they were pretty nasty. John told me not to give up on them though.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!! Just curious, what did those of you who had trick-or-treaters hand out? We don't have any since we live in a gated townhome, but if we ever move, I need ideas for vegan candy!

Too Many Things in the Oven!

Last night was my first serious cooking since returning to Houston on Monday. Here's a peak at our crowded plate:



After seeing a sneak peak of some recipes for the upcoming Veganomicon on the ppk, I knew I had to try one out. And luckily, I had some tempeh in the fridge, so I made the Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh. I used chipotle hot sauce, since I love that smoky flavor. And in my rush of trying to keep track of all the other things going on, I forgot to add lemon juice to the marinade, but it all turned out fine. Since I don't have a grill pan, I went with the broiling option. Alongside the tempeh (and the other things that took up space in my oven) was roasted brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes and red pepper (seasoned with cumin, coriander, and garlic), and pan-fried polenta topped with roasted grape tomatoes. A delicious meal that even our omnivorous friend devoured!

While I was busy with the oven, we had pita chips and store-bought hummus to munch on (I know, very lazy of me). But I had to take a photo of my new chip and dip platter, a wedding gift from my grandparents!



For dessert we had leftover wedding cake (marble cake with the best chocolate frosting ever). I froze about half of it and the rest we're (meaning mostly me, John likes to be healthy but I can't resist) trying to eat. Maybe I'll freeze a little more.

Still working on getting wedding photos together. I'll post those sometime over the weekend.