Dog Treats

My little doggie, Coda, had 33 teeth removed on Thursday. We think she has 5 left, but she won't show us yet. She's recovering well, so most is good. Coda's aunt gave her many homemade vegan cookies a cook book for Christmas called Emma's K9 Kitchen.With Coda's lack of teeth I've been concerned about how she's going to have treats for all the good things she does! Flipping through Emma's K9 Kitchen I came across No-Bake Peanut Butter Balls, but the recipe wouldn't quite work because of the dried fruit and cereal. I modified the recipe with agar so it would go down a bit easier. So here it is:

Coda's Peanut Butter Agar Treats:
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons water
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 Tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon flax
1 Tablespoon agar
Buckwheat flour as needed

Mix 2 tablespoons of water with 1 tablespoon agar and set aside.
Bring water to a boil, add peanut butter, molasses. Whisk until combined. Add nutritional yeast and flax. Then add agar mixture and cook for 5 more minutes.
This recipe may need additional water.
Pour/spread into a parchment paper lined paper. Let cool. Once it's cool, cut into pieces and toss with buckwheat flour to prevent from sticking. Place in an air tight container. I don't know for how long, probably 7 days.

Coda recovery post op:

Coda's Peanut Butter Agar Treats:

Travels and Anniversary

Mr. Bolsh and I had our 1 year wedding anniversary last July, but due to an unpleasant day before our anniversary we never celebrated. Since we've both been busy with our jobs, and other activities finding a weekend when it was just the two of us has been difficult.
We finally made time to celebrate after my recent trip from Vietnam. I made a very wintery meal for a summer celebration but it was enjoyed.

Golden Chestnut Soup from The Vegan Lunchbox and roasted brussel sprouts:

This chestnut soup was so delicious. Hearty, nutty, and sweet while still being savory. The recipe calls to roast the chestnuts for 20 minutes, but I found this to be too long and dried out, and even exploded a few chestnuts.

Last week I was in Vietnam for work. I had a good chance to try fruit I had never had before. I even got to try the dreaded durian fruit. The fruit that is known to be banned from some countries because the smell is cross between sewage and rotting raspberries. Lucky for me, or unluckily, the fruit was not in season so it was not as ripe/stinky as it normally is. I didn't find it to be too unpleasant. The smell was strong, but it was the texture that bothered me the most. It looked like a steamed rollover dessert. The texture was puply, not juicey, somewhat mealy like a soft apple, but not sweet. I didn't hate it so I would like to try it again when it is ripe.

At the market I did get to pick up some fruit I'd never had. All of it great. The red one is a plum, the red and green one a milk fruit and the one with black spots is Soursop/custard apple.

To share one other thing I really enjoyed from my trip to Siagon, beside the food, was the Reunifaction Palace. This building was so beautiful to eyes. I encourage all others who love great modern architecture to visit the building if they ever have the chance.


But back to food - Since the Bolsh family date night ended up falling on the first real snow day in Portland, we celebrated by making christmas cookies:

We used my favorite sugar cookie recipe. Then we frosted them using the following recipe:

Hard Cookie Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 - 4 tablespoons of soymilk or water (you'll have to play to get the right consistency)
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or your favorite.
Assorted food coloring

1. In a small bowl, stir together sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.


6" of snow has made for difficult weather to return to after 10 days in 89 degrees in Siagon.

Because of my spuratic posting, this will probably be the last of my year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Nana

My Nana would have turned 82 last Saturdau. I was planning to visit her, but she's no longer around to visit.
In celebration of her life I made this cake:


Three layers of chocolate cake, two layers each. Chocolate raspberry filling between each layer. A raspberry buttercream and thick chocolately ganache all over the top. I love how it looks like it's melting.

And this cake:



















This was a chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake.

Fueled by Popcorn: The Zine

It's now available to two locations!

If you're in Portland you can purchase my zine at Herbivore, or from me directly for $3.
Or, you can purchase it online from Small World Buttons for $3 plus shipping. And from Small World Buttons Etsy Site. (Buy some coffee while you're there. I recommend the half-caf.)

Webly, from the Website Stumptown Vegans, has released her first in a series of cook zines, this one is 22 pages and features popcorn! It is named after her food blog Fueled by Popcorn

Webly tells the story of her favorite snack from how a kernel evolves into a puffed white ball with just the right amount of heat and what to do with it once it gets there! She provides valuable information on the different types of corn, oils, cooking methods, salts, spices how to use them to their fullest, and even how to store popped corn. All this before giving you 15 popcorn recipes!

The recipes range from simple to complex and some include mixing spices to create mouthwatering snacks that are not just for movie watching. Some examples are Webly's favorite, the savory Sundried Tomato or the caramel-corn-like recipes like the irresistible French Toast Popcorn. Pick up her zine today and start snacking!

Fueled By Popcorn - The Zine

Stay tuned for information about the zine with 15 popcorn recipes.

Grillin'

I have been grilling up a storm since May. Below are some photographic evidence of my skills, or lack there of.

Cous cous, broccoli, tofu, and garlic:
Tofu and Cauliflower:
Tofu and Greens:

Green Beans and Avocados:

I was inspired by a show on the food channel. They had a bunch of not-ripe-enough avocados and decided to grill them with lemon, olive oil, and garlic. I gave it a try and stuffed them with a carrot, bell pepper salad. It was okay, but not as good as I was expecting. It was a good way to use up unripe avocados.
Tofu and Brocolli:
Onions, Zucchini, eggplant, tofu:
Tofu and Greens:

I have some pineapple, corn, and zucchini waiting to be grilled this week.

Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are so many chocolate chip cookie recipes out there and I've found there are two kinds: dense and not so dense. I think most vegan chocolate chip cookies I came across a dense cookie. I love this kind of cookie, like my chocolate, chocolate cookie recipe that is almost like a brownie. But sometimes I prefer a lighter cookie.

While going through Nana's recipes I came across the, "Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe. There was a newspaper clipping about the history of the cookie at the Toll House Inn on the east coast in the 1930's. The baker was making chocolate cookies and mistakenly used the wrong chocolate which did not melt into the cookie as it should have - it just stayed their in chunks in the vanilla batter - thus one of the most famous cookies was born.

Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 1/4 Cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup soft butter (margarine)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs (I used powdered Energy egg replacer)
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (I left these out)

Combine flour, soda, and salt.
Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the egg substitute and beat once more. Slowly add the flour mixture until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto baking sheets.
Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown.


This is a fail-prove recipe.

Peanut Butter Swirls:
Since I cannot follow a recipe to save my life I did alter this recipe beyond veganizing it - I added peanut butter. I spread peanut butter across a piece of parchment paper and put it in the freezer for a few hours until it was hard. I took it out and quickly broken it up into little pieces. Since peanut butter defreezes quickly you need to work quickly to stir the little chunks into the batter before scooping the batter on the cookie sheet.
Cook as normal and enjoy the little bites of peanut butter goodness.