Graduation Dinner

When a friend graduated from chef school in NYC, I went down for his final dinner.  He served these crackers (in large triangles) with a cherry tomato salad to start.  Super food.  I made these this past weekend when I was trying to figure out how to stretch my last few weekend dollars and had a big bag of sunflower seeds for $1.99.  Toast 'em up!  Grind 'em up!  Mix 'em with oats and maple, oil, oregano, thyme, and a bit of w/w pastry flour.  They taste like Scottish oat cakes.

Leftover fun with chickpeas

The hummus here (the square blob, lower left) was a rescue from my sister-in-law.  She was in her car, I was in the kitchen, and I told her I had a runny mess of a hummus attempt in the fridge, evaporating.  She said "chickpea flour," and I was on a rescue mission.  Not bad.  Not bad.  This batch I made without any oil or tahini, so it tastes like I went camping and made it, but whatever.  Next time I'll use the good stuff.

Tagine!

This blurry mess is the Moroccan Tagine (Spring vegetables) in Vegan with a Vengeance.  I didn't have cinnamon sticks, so I put a few anise pods in there, along with turmeric, raisins, red pepper flakes, coriander, cumin... I love this dish.

Eggplant parm

Eggplant parmesan, ala What the hell does a vegan eat anyway?, with cheese and leftover pasta sauce.

Look quickly -- Quickly! Then turn away!

I had to look away while someone else emptied my cake pans... a birthday cake for a colleague, and another crumbly mess.  Is it the humidity here?  Why is it I can't turn out a decent cake, even with parchment paper?  My flour should have had enough gluten in it... is there just so much bayou in the air I need to add less liquid to my baking mixes?  Ughhh.  This is the SmittenKitchen chocolate layer cake.  It's great.  It's just the non-vegan version of the cake I made a few months back.  I need to find another one... maybe the Veganomicon recipe I've had a few times with cream filling?  

Drat. Another failed reading quiz.

So I have a houseguest for a few days, and I decide to make smoothies and muffins for breakfast.  Whaaat?  No oatmeal-in-rice-cooker?  I know.  I know.  A break in the routine, if you can imagine.

So I'm substituting away, feeling pretty clever making carrot-walnut muffins (local carrots!) out of Molly Katzen's low-fat banana muffin recipe.  Extra leavening, some salt... but darnit, I added oats rather than making oat flour.  My houseguest was sleeping, so probably a good thing I didn't grind oats, but I hated to screw up something I thought was going so well.  Muffins were good, but a bit dry.  More raisins next time!

Julie Andrews, hold onto your hat!

My favorite things these days are cabbage salad with miso dressing, and roasted kale ("chips"). Yum. Yum. Yum. And now that I'm reading _One Bite at a Time_, Rebecca Katz's wonderful cookbook with anti-cancer recipes, I know that this is a meal packed with goodness.

Best part of the cabbage salad, though, is the sidecar container of toasted seeds and nuts I bring with it for lunch. Tofu chunks, sweet potatoes, carrot chunks, onions, wild rice, maybe even celery, pea pods... all great additions.