Sunday, March 1, 2009

Setting out on your suggestions



On Friday I made the bruschetta, using the San Marzano tomatos (only 50c more here than the muir glen! possibly because the others are more expensive to begin with). When it was warm it tasted extremely gourmet. As soon as it cooled, it tasted totally mundane. So I made them two by two (in the toaster oven). As you can see in the picture, at some point I was just eating toasted tomatoes, having run out of bread (half of it went to another cause). All in all though, C and I agreed that this is a huge hit in terms effort-taste tradeoff, and definitely a food with which to impress guests. Thanks Jasmine!

Between slices of bruschetta, I made the moussaka from Veganomicon. Three votes for "really good" (I think I just love sliced toasted potatoes covered in cream-like-things) and one for "weird". The mock-cream paste (tofu, pinenuts, lemon) tasted terrible before being cooked, but wonderful after (to all the three of us who liked it...). I kind of like this dish for its heaviness, and because it's clearly a complete meal (though I served it with two of my favorite sides: microwaved broccoli and (pan fried) swiss chard). 

I also made and enjoyed the quinoa almond muffins from Veganomicon. But, really, I think I enjoyed the raw almond paste more. I could just eat that all day. But the muffins were nice too. I wish I'd tried to sub the 1/4 oil with 1/4 cup of applesauce though, since I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know the difference. In other words, I agree with Jasmine's review-- kind of delicious, but not the best ever.

On Wednesday, at 5 am, I made the pumpkin cupcakes from the cupcake book. Everyone who had these said they were fantastic. Much bigger hit than any of the muffins I've made recently. I'll admit they were good, but I wasn't raving over them. 

And, thanks to you guys, I bought ingredients for broiled tofu, pasta e fagioli, Spicy Tempeh Nori Rolls, Grilled Yuca Tortillas. I'm really looking forward to these!

5 comments:

jovaliquilts said...

What a meal! The moussaka looks gorgeous in your photo.
Also, if you want to substitute applesauce for oil, it works better if you drain the applesauce in a coffee filter for 15 min or so before using it. I tried that after reading it somewhere and it's true!

Jocelyn said...

Whoa! That looks sooo good! I'm really impressed.

We should cook lunch/dinner sometime - try out some of the new stuff!

jasmine said...

sounds tasty :)
I love that moussaka recipe!

Ribbit said...

I'm so glad to have such knowledgeable cobloggers! My applesauce baked goods were never a success with my roommates-- maybe this will change that!

And Jocelyn, I'm definitely up for cooking!

Jasmine, you have truly cooked everything in this book. As I made it I dutifully poured in the full quantity of oil, and thought of whether you'd be doing that.

I suppose that now that I'm finally able to reliably cook tasty things (with the help of Veganomicon and your recipes...), my next step is less oil-filled.

jasmine said...

haha... i haven't cooked everything, but it's true that i've done a lot of it. last spring semester, j and i pretty much only ate dinner from that cookbook and i almost never repeated a recipe. now i'm branching out a bit to other recipe sources to keep entertained. i'm still not a big fan of repetition. i tell j that life is too short and there are too many flavors in the world to keep making the same recipes over again! ...that said, i have a few standbys just like everyone else.