Mitten Machen

Hello Again

2011-04-21T15:00:00.001-04:00

Babies are sure time consuming. The feedings, diaper changes, and soothing alone are a full-time job, and when the opportunity for a break arises (hello, afternoon nap), updating a blog falls low on the list of priorities, behind:

1. showering
2. washing dishes
3. folding laundry
4. eating lunch (with two hands!)
5. catching a nap myself

I am literally typing this in bed with one hand while the kid uses my left arm as a pillow. So shhhh! The meals I'm throwing together are not elegant: frozen vegetables appear regularly, as do carton soups. You know what makes a great 5-minute dinner? A baked potato, with stuff poured over it. Beans, vegetables, hummus, salsa, whatever. An even faster meal, because you fell asleep putting the baby to bed and woke up during Craig Ferguson? Cereal.

I've got some tasty posts floating around in my head, but until I get the chance to actually write them, I suggest you visit xgfx, a brand-new comprehensive resource for all things vegan AND gluten-free. No eggs, no wheat, no whey, no spelt. No delicious photos of food I can't eat! And if you click the xgfx icon on the right, you'll find a directory of gluten-free vegan blogs. There are more of us than I ever imagined!

In closing, here's a photo of my new man researching solid foods. He's a very studious baby.

2010-12-01T09:40:00.001-05:00

MittenMachen is on maternity leave. I'll be back with more knitting and recipes when I have a spare hand and a free minute! Happy holidays!

A Mainer Cooks Soul Food

2010-11-04T16:25:00.001-04:00

If you grew up in the southern United States, you probably won't get very excited about this recipe. Black-eyed peas, humbly seasoned with pork and onion, are a soul food staple. On New Year's Day, they're served with leafy greens and hot sauce for good luck: the greens symbolize money, and the beans, which swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity.

We in the north grow up on baked beans, a warming dish of navy beans stewed or baked in a tangy tomato sauce, sweetened with molasses or maple syrup. Sometimes we eat them with ketchup or mustard (especially if tofu pups are present), but we would never dream of dousing them in salsa.

My husband's grandmother introduced me to black-eyed peas; originally from Oklahoma, she can practically whip them up blindfolded. She leaves out the pork, but sometimes she throws in sliced okra. Ask for her recipe and all you'll get is a list of ingredients; the method and measurements are instinct. The following recipe contains my best guesses and the addition of bay leaves. A little bit of liquid smoke would be a nice touch, particularly if you grew up on pork-seasoned black-eyed peas.

Now that temperatures are below freezing and I'm busy preparing for BabyMitten, meals like this one—easy, satisfying, and nutritious—are just what I need. So why wait until New Year's to share?

Oklahoma Black-Eyed Peas
Inspired by Grandma Shaw

2 cups dried black-eyed peas
8 cups water
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 large onion, chopped
1½ teaspoons salt
2 bay leaves
½ cup brown rice
freshly ground black pepper
optional: cooked, sliced okra or chopped greens (collard, turnip, or mustard)
salsa, hot sauce, or sliced pepperoncinis

Soak beans for at least 6 hours. Drain and rinse.

In a large pot, bring beans, water, garlic, onion, salt, bay leaves, and rice to a simmer. Partially cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes, or until beans and rice are tender. Add more water if needed to keep beans from sticking to bottom of pot. Stir in freshly ground black pepper, and vegetables, if using. Stir until greens are wilted. Serve with salsa, hot sauce, or pepperoncinis.

Serves 4 as a main course.

Spice Up That Winter Squash

2010-10-21T12:40:00.001-04:00

Our CSA has just wrapped up for the year (no frost at my house yet, but I expect it any day now!), and our last deliveries brought the end of summer squash and the first of the winter squash. My basement shelves are lined with delicata, butternut, acorn, hubbard, and pumpkin.

When treated with consideration, squash is a joy. Sweet, rich, and packed with vitamins, it yields to a variety of preparation methods and gets along with all types of flavors. Unfortunately, many of us first became acquainted with squash as it was scooped onto our school lunch trays: a cloying, orange, pre-macerated mush we had to swallow before going out to recess. Pairing naturally sweet squash with even sweeter cinnamon and sugar is a Crime Against Vegetables. Treat your squash right: give it something rich, something savory, and something spicy.

Here is a quick, lazy weeknight recipe that relies on store-bought red curry paste. If you have the ingredients, the time, and the knowledge, go ahead and make your own curry paste from scratch (and then by all means, brag about it!). The squash, coconut, and a touch of brown sugar work with the chili sauce to make each bite spicy up front with a mellow, lingering sweetness. Omit the tofu and turn this into a side dish, or substitute for the zucchini and summer squash any vegetables you like; red bell pepper and cauliflower come to mind.

Double Squash Red Curry

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
16 oz. extra firm tofu, pressed and cubed
1 small winter squash (acorn, buttercup, or pumpkin), cut into in 1-inch cubes
14 oz. coconut milk
½ cup water
3 tablespoons red curry paste
1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 medium zucchini or summer squash, sliced (about 4 cups)
chili sauce (preferably Sriracha), to taste
cilantro

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Pan-fry tofu, tossing frequently until golden brown on all sides. Add cubed winter squash, coconut milk, water, chili paste, and sugar. Bring to a low simmer and reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until squash is softened but not mushy. Stir in summer squash and cook, uncovered, another 5 minutes, until summer squash is tender. Taste and add chili-garlic sauce or additional sugar if desired. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice. Serves 4.

Zucchini Corn Cakes in the Newest Issue of Maine Food & Lifestyle

2010-10-14T11:43:00.001-04:00

The latest issue of Maine Food & Lifestyle Magazine is out, featuring my recipe for Zucchini Corn Cakes with Black Bean Salsa Cruda. Made with chickpea flour and cornmeal, they're savory, hearty, and quick. Try them with any late summer vegetables that may still be hanging around your pantry.

Maine Food & Lifestyle is available by subscription, or on magazine stands throughout the state.

Finally Finished: Cotton Cabled Sweater

2010-10-04T16:06:00.001-04:00

This sweater taught me two things:

1. How to do a mock cable
2. From now on, I should only knit sweaters in the round; I hate knitting pieces flat and then sewing them together!

I love the Cascade Ultra Pima yarn: it's washable, sturdy, and breathable. The weave is fairly loose; although I followed the directions for size 9-12 months, this sweater is probably not going to fit BabyMitten for 3 or 4 years. I could have gone down a needle size, but instead I chose to keep it loose and relaxed. Babies grow.

The pattern for the Dewey Cabled Pullover is in Vintage Baby Knits: More Than 40 Heirloom Patterns from the 1920s to the 1950s. Next on the agenda: winter hats for small heads.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

2010-09-20T12:45:00.001-04:00

It's finally autumn. I love wearing handmade socks, pulling up the hood of my sweatshirt during early morning walks, warming my fingers over the steam rising from a cup of tea. It's time again for soup, squash, and warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. It's time to get out the oven mitts and get back to baking.

Inspired by my recent success with zucchini muffins, I swapped out applesauce for canned pumpkin, added brown sugar and maple syrup, and warmed up the flavors. The ingredient list is long, but it's worth the effort for gluten-free muffins this moist and cozy. These muffins aren't overly sweet, but if you'd like to, you could use a crumb or sugar topping, or substitute chocolate chips for the dried fruit.

As with the zucchini muffins, if you don't want to bake 18 at once, spoon the extra batter into lined muffin cups and place it in the freezer. Once the batter is frozen, remove the cups and store them vapor-proof freezer bags until ready to use. When you're ready to use them, just pop the frozen batter into a muffin tin, and increase the baking time by 10 minutes.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Dry Ingredients:
⅔ cup sorghum or millet flour
⅔ cup tapioca flour
⅔ cup brown rice flour
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
2 teaspoons of baking powder
¾ teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:
15 ounces canned pumpkin purée
1½ teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer
2 tablespoons warm water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup

½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup raisins or dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin tins with liners.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined. Stir in nuts and dried fruit. Distribute batter evenly among 18 muffin cups.

Bake for 22-25 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave muffins in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool at least 30 minutes before eating, or they will stick to the liners.

Makes 18 small muffins.

Review: Portland Pie Co.

2010-09-06T17:44:00.001-04:00

After my recent post about Flatbread Company's gluten-free pizza, several people pointed me toward Portland Pie Co., which has four locations in southern Maine and New Hampshire and carries a gluten-free crust, as well as vegan cheese. This weekend I stopped for lunch at the Scarborough location, in the soulless new Cabela's shopping plaza. It had the atmosphere of any good-time shopping mall chain, but where there's gluten-free pizza, I can overlook faux-brass fixtures or a stuffed moose head over the bar.

For $1.25 each, the toppings on my 10-inch pizza were pretty scarce. I went with red sauce, Daiya vegan cheese, black olives, broccoli, and garlic.

The gluten-free crust was thin and crisp. It's not bad if you prefer Neopolitan-style pizza; I've always loved big puffy crust with bubbles. The sauce wasn't notable. While I like Daiya in moderation, here it was just too heavy, and it tasted a little like plastic. I put a lot of salt and red pepper flakes on this pizza in an attempt to make it taste like something, but in the end, it wasn't much better than a frozen Amy's Rice Crust Spinach Pizza.

Of course, as a gluten-free vegan, I'm grateful anytime a restaurant provides me with more than an undressed garden salad. Portland Pie Co. doesn't do gluten-free pizza as well as Flatbread Company, but it's another option for gluten-free, dairy-free folks who want to enjoy a meal alongside omnivorous friends. Next time, I'll probably skip the vegan cheese and spring for lots more veggie toppings.

For carrying Daiya, Portland Pie Co. earns three chickpeas for vegan-accessibility. I'd love to see more creative vegetarian sandwich choices—currently there's a hummus wrap (yawn) and a toasted cheddar and veggie option. Portland Pie Co. is worth a visit if you're trying to appease a crowd with varying tastes and dietary restrictions.

Keeping Tomatoes

2010-09-02T16:18:00.001-04:00

Imagine it's January. You've just come inside from cross-country skiing or building a snowman. Imagine reaching into your pantry for a jar of tomatoes that you skinned, crushed, and canned with your own hands last August, at the height of tomato season. Purée those tomatoes, and heat them gently in a saucepan with a bit of thyme and basil, black pepper, and soy, coconut, or cashew cream. Now stir in some cooked rice, beans, or pasta. Wrap your fingers around a steaming mug of homemade cream of tomato soup. It doesn't get any better than this.

I've been turning over ideas for another post about long-term food storage. It's been on my mind lately, as I squirrel away the summer's fruits and vegetables. If what they say about caring for new babies is true, I'll be too busy and too tired come winter to worry about cooking or nutrition. This gives my stockpiling a sense of urgency.

I heard a story on NPR this morning that asked why home canning has suddenly become popular again. Is it the economy? Maybe. At 30 pounds for $35, my tomatoes are significantly cheaper than the organic brand I used to buy at the grocery store. But canning takes a bit of investment up front, in jars and equipment, that may deter those interested solely in thrift.

Is it the local food movement? This probably plays a bigger role. I like knowing my tomatoes were grown just down the road in Pittsfield, Maine, then picked, brought to market, and canned the same day. I trust that the bearded farmer who sold them to me grew them according to his principles, without petroleum-based fertilizers or insecticides. And I like paying the farmer directly; when I buy a can of crushed tomatoes at the grocery store, how many ways is my money split, and how much of it do the growers and pickers actually see?

Taste is certainly a factor. Grocery store tomatoes, picked green and ripened with ethylyne gas, can never compare with tomatoes ripened outdoors on the vine. There is also the satisfaction of doing something by hand, in being able to feed myself the way families did a century ago. (Grocery store? I don't need no stinking grocery store!)

For all these reasons, I've become increasingly addicted to canning. I smiled when the radio reporter mentioned "the sound that every home canner loves to hear—the little thunk that tells you the lid is airtight ... 'the music of the jars,'" (or as one listener wrote in the online comments, "the ping of victory"). Hearing that little pop, and knowing my fruits, vegetables, jams and sauces are safely suspended in time, brings a sense of satisfaction that's hard to beat.

If you find yourself with more tomatoes than you can eat fresh (my favorite lunch of late is hummus and tomato sandwiches), canning or dehydrating them will buy you the most storage time. Freezing sauces and soups is another option. I've got 24 servings of Tomato Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and White Beans (recipe in Veganomicon) in quart-size freezer bags, waiting for an overtired, overwhelmed new parent to thaw them out some cold evening in December.

Why have I gone crazy for food preservation? It's not about preparing for some apocalyptic scenario. It's about putting comfort foods in the bank, and opening them, like gifts to myself, all winter long.

Book Winner

2010-08-20T11:27:00.001-04:00

Since 11 people entered the Garlic-Onion-Beet-Spinach-Mango-Carrot-Grapefruit Juice giveaway, I rolled a pair of dice to determine the winner (since it's impossible to roll 1, the first commenter would have won with a 12). And the winner is...

Jcazz, who loves blueberry, carrot, celery, orange, and apple juice! Send an email to mary@mittenmachen.com and let me know where you'd like the book and buttons sent.

Enjoy the weekend everybody. Eat those tomatoes while you can!

Summer Vegetable Sauté at Maine Food & Lifestyle

2010-08-17T09:38:00.001-04:00

If you've still got more zucchini than you know what to do with, try this quick, easy Summer Vegetable Sauté. In this dish, which takes only 20 minutes to prepare, fresh summer squash, heirloom tomatoes, white beans, and Italian herbs are satisfying and elegant. Visit me at the blog of Maine Food & Lifestyle Magazine, where I've posted the recipe. This meal is in heavy rotation at my house!

Something To Do With All Those Damn Zucchini

2010-08-13T14:19:00.001-04:00

For the last few weeks I have been suffocating under a zucchini avalanche. I'm getting 6 or 7 pounds of the stuff in my CSA, and coworkers are giving us shopping bags full of it. My neighbors have set up a table next to their mailbox where they leave piles of summer squash, free for the taking. Zucchini is a delicious source of fiber and of vitamins A and C, but this month it's coming on too strong. Give me a chance to miss you, zucchini, before showing up on my doorstep by the dozen.

I've dried and frozen most of my excess zucchini; it will show up later in soup. Another way to store zucchini is to bake it into bread which can be frozen and enjoyed all winter long. I had serious misgivings about adapting a traditional zucchini bread recipe. In my experience, gluten-free quickbreads sink in the middle and get gluey. Mini-loaves and muffins require less support; when you're baking without gluten, a high ratio of surface area to insides is best.

I worked with Gluten-Free Mommy's recipe for Carrot-Zucchini Muffins, which is itself an adaptation of Martha Stewart's Spiced Carrot Muffins. The crumb topping comes from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. Substituting vegan ingredients was easy; I also adjusted the spices and added walnuts. I used Ener-G egg replacer because I was feeling risk averse, but if you try these with flax or another egg substitute, let me know how they turn out, okay? I made one batch with sorghum flour and another with millet. I prefer the millet because it is slightly less sweet, but both work well, so use whichever is in your pantry.

Now for the exciting part: you can make the batter now and have zucchini muffins fresh from the oven in January. I learned this trick from Martha: spoon the batter into lined muffin cups and place it in the freezer. Once the batter is frozen, remove the cups and store them vapor-proof freezer bags until ready to use. When you want fresh muffins, there's no need to thaw the batter—just increase the baking time by 10-12 minutes. I've got plenty of these babies ready to go in my freezer.

Gluten-Free Zucchini Muffins

Dry Ingredients:
⅔ cup sorghum or millet flour
⅔ cup tapioca flour
⅔ cup brown rice flour
¾ cup of granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
2 teaspoons of baking powder
¾ teaspoon of baking soda
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1⁄8 teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1½ teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer
2 tablespoons warm water
5 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
2½ cups zucchini, grated or shredded

Crumb Topping (optional):
2 teaspoons vegan margarine
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon brown rice flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin tins with liners. In a small bowl, use a fork to mix crumb topping ingredients (if using) and set aside.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined. Distribute batter evenly among 18 muffin cups. Sprinkle crumb topping.

Bake for 20-22 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave muffins in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool at least 30 minutes before eating, or they will stick to the liners.

Makes 18 small muffins.

Vegan-Friendly Children's Book Giveaway!

2010-08-10T12:57:00.001-04:00

Do the kids in your life like silly vikings, creative cooking, and stories that make them think? Then they'll love Garlic-Onion-Beet-Spinach-Mango-Carrot-Grapefruit Juice (whew, what a mouthful!) by author and illustrator Nathalie VanBalen.

With a tone that's thoughtful and fun, VanBalen tells the story of Askel and Krog, two vikings with a passion for making juice. When they read that juicing the shells of yellow spotted snails will make them stronger, they confront an ethical dilemma. With their friend Thora, the vikings consider questions like: Who do the yellow spotted snail shells belong to? How would it feel to be someone else's food?

While the book's message is serious, the riotous, colorful multimedia illustrations and text are a joy. Visit VanBalen's website for a peek at her work. Kids will love the free coloring pages and opportunities to submit their own artwork and recipes at VanBalen's blog. To order the book, visit VanBalen's store, where you'll find buttons, magnets, and handmade, limited edition sewn and stuffed characters from the story.

One MittenMachen reader can win a copy of Garlic-Onion-Beet-Spinach-Mango-Carrot-Grapefruit Juice, along with some buttons featuring Thora and two of VanBalen's adorable food drawings (perfect for your kiddo's backpack). What a great back-to-school gift for the veggie-loving child in your life! To enter, leave a comment telling me your favorite type of juice (mine's cranberry); I'll randomly select a winner on Friday, August 20th. Good luck!

Cotton Baby Sweaters

2010-07-30T14:59:00.001-04:00

Only 4 months to go, and I finally finished my first baby item.

I knit this basic boatneck pullover with Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria in gender-neutral tones. It couldn't have been easier—pure television knitting. I knit the torso in a tube from the bottom up, split the stitches in half at the armpits, and knit the front and back flat. Then I seamed the shoulders, picked up stitches at the arm holes, and knit the arms in the round, shoulder to wrist. It's two tubes attached to a larger tube. No shaping. No sewing. No thinking. It's boxy and roomy, for wrastlin'.

Here's the beginning of my next project, the Dewey Cabled Pullover from Vintage Baby Knits:

I'm using Cascade Ultra Pima in a lovely mustard (chosen to hide vomit stains). This time I'm following a pattern and it requires counting, so I'll have to pay attention.

Gluten-Free Dough at Flatbread Company

2010-07-28T16:43:00.001-04:00

Before going gluten-free last September, Flatbread Company was one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. I loved their crispy brick oven pizza and hippie toppings, their thoughtful salad and drinks (especially the maple lemonade), and the patio and wall of windows that look out on docking ferries. After I gave up gluten, I quit going to Flatbread Company—who wants to sit around and watch other people eat pizza?

It turns out my self-imposed exile from Flatbread was unnecessary. Though it's not listed on their website or menu, Flatbread carries a vegan, gluten-free pizza crust made by Mommy's Muffins in New Hampshire. For four dollars extra, you can make any small pizza gluten-free. And it's really pretty good!

The dough is made with chickpea and rice flour, as well as all the familiar GF starches. It tastes like a nutty whole-wheat crust, and serves as a neutral backdrop for toppings. Mine didn't char like the traditional crust, but it held together and supported toppings without becoming a brick.

The gluten-free dough is handled carefully and cooked on its own tray, but cross-contamination is possible (there is a lot of flour flying around back by the oven). Flatbread also carries brownies and whoopie pies that are gluten-free but not vegan. I can't imagine why these gluten-free options aren't on the menu; I avoided Flatbread for almost a year because I thought they couldn't feed me.

As far as I know, Flatbread Company is the only place in Maine where you can order a gluten-free vegan pizza. Not only is it delicious, you can eat it while waiting for seals to pop their heads up beside the dock. I'll be back!

Just A Little Post About Scones

2010-07-23T14:23:00.001-04:00

Most of July has been too hot for baking, but this week brought cooler temperatures (along with some exciting thunderstorms). A while ago I signed up to bake something for an event at our Maine Audubon center, and though I got off to a bad start with Flying Apron's Gluten-free & Vegan Baking Book, I decided to try the scones. (Kittee swears by Flying Apron's scone recipe, and I trust her tastebuds.) If you don't own this pretty but inconsistent cookbook, you can find the recipe by going to Amazon and searching the look inside feature for Blueberry Cinnamon Scones.

I made these twice (the #1 rule of gluten-free baking is always do a test run). The first time, I swapped the blueberries for raspberries and added some orange zest, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The dough was too wet to knead, so I added about ⅓ cup additional brown rice flour. The finished scones were tasty (the chickpea flavor bakes right out), but fragile. Fresh from the oven, their texture was crumbly, but by the next day they disintegrated if I even looked at them funny.

I added ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum to my second batch, and the results were perfect. These scones are crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, and they withstand gentle handling the way scones should.

Unless you like scones the size of your head, I recommend forming the dough into two 2-inch disks and slicing each of these into eighths, for 16 hand-sized scones. Bake smaller scones for 25 minutes. A drizzle of simple confectioner's sugar glaze makes these as fancy and a tasty as anything you'd find in the Starbucks pastry case. A dusting of turbinado sugar (before the scones go in the oven) would also be nice.

For the first time in a long time, I baked something gluten-free that's good enough to serve to normal people! It feels good.

Freezing, Canning, and Drying the Season

2010-07-16T15:56:00.001-04:00

I've got local produce up the wazoo. Back in December, we decided to double our CSA share this summer, figuring we'd store whatever we couldn't eat within a week. We didn't plan on the weather getting so warm so early, with rain at regular intervals. Our haul is easily triple last year's, and I've spent most of the past few Saturdays washing, slicing, blanching, and canning.

Slowly but surely I've been filling our freezer with vegetables. Carrots, spinach, chard, peas, and basil pesto (frozen in single servings) will all come in handy this winter, when I'll be busy wiping up spittle or some such nonsense.

I recently celebrated my thirtieth birthday, and my big present was a dehydrator (which ought to tell you how exciting I am). Last weekend I dried zucchini and summer squash. Though they're not crunchy enough to eat as chips, they're surprisingly sweet, and will make great additions to soup mixes.

Today I'm drying radishes:

You can't freeze 'em, and you can only eat so many fresh before your tongue goes numb. I found this recipe for spicy radish dip that calls for dried, powdered radishes. I also think they'll make neat little spicy croutons.

I've been canning, too. Jam, so far, but come August there will be pickles galore. Jam, pickles, and fruit in syrup went quickly last winter, as gifts and in our own kitchen. Juice concentrates got less use, so I'll likely skip them this year.

Thanks to a late frost, strawberries were fleeting this summer, and I only got in a half dozen jars of jam before they were gone. Raspberries are thriving (my berry man at the farmers' market brags about his "bumpah crop"), and I'll be making another batch of jam tomorrow.

I know this winter I'll be too busy to shop for or prepare healthy food, and I'll be glad I set all this aside. Still, after 7 hours of standing at the sink peeling carrots and shucking peas, I can't help but think what hard work this slow food business is! How did those pioneer women do it without comfortable shoes or running water?

Portland's Pepperclub: A Welcoming Spot for Eaters of All Kinds

2010-07-09T14:36:00.001-04:00

Portland boasts a half-dozen restaurants with vegan-friendly menus, but since going gluten-free, a few of my old favorites are sadly off-limits (who wants to go to Flatbread Company and smell pizza?) Being gluten-free adds a whole new level of difficulty to dining out, and I've gained an appreciation for the rare eatery where I can sit down, tell the server I am vegan and gluten-free, and have my dietary restrictions understood without further explanation. Fortunately, Pepperclub on Middle Street is a safe bet, with knowledgeable staff who go out of their way to ensure I eat well.

The dinner menu typically features 12 entrées, half of them vegetarian. Of these, 3 or 4 can usually be made without eggs, dairy, and gluten. I've visited twice, and each time the server has bee able to provide information about ingredients and preparation methods. Pepperclub serves wine and beer, with an emphasis on Maine producers, though several St. Peter's gluten-free beers are available.

We stopped in for dinner on a recent Saturday night, and took advantage of Pepperclub's prix fixe special. My first course was a rich, lightly salty carrot-peanut-cilantro soup. It was simple but delicious; I want to try making it in the fall with some of my CSA carrots. Behind the soup you can see some rice crackers that our thoughtful server brought for me in place of bread and butter.

A simple green salad with a sweet citrus vinaigrette followed the soup. I didn't even have to remind them to hold the croutons.

We chose two gluten-free vegan entrées, planning to share. The mushroom loaf with gravy and puréed root vegetables was pure comfort food.

It would have been more appropriate to a cold night in November, but I loved every bite. It was tender but not mushy, with rich flavors of mushroom, red wine, and sweet potato. And who would have thought an orange slice belonged on that plate? It was perfect!

The coconut tempeh stir-fry, on the other hand, was ill-conceived. You can't just slice up cold tempeh, throw it in a recipe in place of chicken, and expect it to taste good. This tempeh was dense and dry; I wondered if it had even been marinated. The vegetables were done right, cooked just long enough to retain some crunch, but the coconut sauce was too heavy. The lime slices make me suspect they were trying to go Thai here, but the dish was dry and the tempeh, having not received the requisite TLC, was sour and out of place. It's dishes like this that convince meat-eaters and new vegetarians that they don't like tempeh. Tofu, or even plain old cashews, would have been a better choice.

After soup, salad, and loaf, I had barely a square inch left for dessert. But how could I pass up orange cake with chocolate mousse?

Oh my, that mousse. So dark. So creamy. Thick as freshly-churned butter, it coated my tongue and brought tears to my eyes. It made me wonder why I don't just give up on disappointing gluten-free cupcakes and make more pudding.

The cake had a pleasantly sweet citrus flavor, but it was so dense and crumbly, I thought it had to be intentional—one of those polenta cakes I've heard so much about. Inquiry revealed that the texture was the result of using brown rice flour, and nothing else, in place of all-purpose. I was okay with it, but if you're used to eating gluten, order something else. Pepperclub's dessert menu varies, but a vegan chocolate cake and vegan cardamom cake are usually available.

While a couple of the things we tried were disappointing, everything about our first visit to Pepperclub last November was incredible. I remember a spiced pumpkin curry with quinoa that was so simple, honest, and fresh, it had me wondering, again, why I hadn't thought of it before. I also remember a bottle of St. Peter's triple blonde ale...at least the beginning of it.

Though it's not a a dedicated vegetarian restaurant, Pepperclub deserves four chickpeas. Even gluten-free vegans have choices here, and that's a rare treat.

Summer Peach Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette

2010-06-29T12:30:00.001-04:00

It's late June, so I've got lots of two things: lettuce and strawberries. Here's an easy but exciting salad for a hot summer day.

I've posted the recipe at Maine Food & Lifestyle. Visit me there!

Cooking With POM Wonderful

2010-06-24T15:55:00.001-04:00

I usually steer clear of food fads. Isn't eating a varied plant-based diet enough? Can increasing consumption of any individual food really prevent or solve health problems? I'm skeptical of marketing that presents a product as integral to a healthy lifestyle.

Lately there's been a lot of hype about antioxidants, molecules that purportedly prevent cell damage and reduce cancer risk. Juice company POM Wonderful claims that pomegranates are the "antioxidant superpower", higher than other fruits in phytochemicals, substances that protect plants from pests and ultraviolet radiation. While many people have jumped on the pomegranate bandwagon, I usually take these miracle food claims with a grain of (sea) salt. Wild Maine blueberries also contain a heck of a lot of antioxidants, and they're grown within 30 miles of my house. Is pomegranate juice so superior that it's worth paying $2.99 for an 8-ounce plastic bottle shipped all the way from California?

But free pomegranate juice? Yes, please. When POM Wonderful offered to send me a few bottles to try out and play around with, I couldn't pass them up. As with any product sent to me for review, I figured if I liked it, I'd say so, and if I didn't, I'd say nothing.

At first I just drank it, as a midmorning pick-me-up. It's juice for sipping, not gulping; its tart flavor falls between wild blueberries and unsweetened cranberry juice. Other members of my household found it too tart, but I believe that any food that hurts a little is good for us, so I drank the juice with gusto.

I had peaches in my fridge, and I couldn't help but think they would be perfect paired with pomegranate. Since last weekend was warm, I experimented with sorbet.

I used this recipe for the pomegranate sorbet, and followed these basic guidelines for making sorbet out of fresh peaches. The combination of sweet and tart quenched my sweet tooth on a hot afternoon.

I'm certainly not the first to dream up this flavor pairing. I based these baked peaches with pomegranate sauce on a recipe I found at The Gluttonous Vegan.

The peach is warm, soft, and sweet, and the puckery pomegranate sauce begins to solidify when it hits the frozen ice cream. This dessert looks elegant enough for a four star restaurant, yet it takes less than 10 minutes of active cooking time to throw together.

You can tell my mind is fixed firmly on the freezer, since the next thing I concocted was a pomegranate hot fudge:

Nothing more than 8 ounces of pomegranate juice plus 3 ounces of melted dark chocolate, this sauce packs a grown-up bittersweet flavor that is not for the faint of heart. If you favor dry red wines with lots of tannins, you'd like this. It solidifies when chilled, so you can either reheat it or use tiny scoop to make intense dark chocolate-pomegranate truffles.

Occasionally I do eat foods that are not ice cream. I used one bottle of juice to make a pomegranate reduction balsamic vinaigrette, and drizzled it over a salad made with fresh CSA veggies:

I followed this recipe, and I'd recommend cutting back on the salt or increasing the sugar.

Whether its health benefits live up to the marketing or not, POM Wonderful's intense flavor and deep magenta color make it lots of fun to cook with. I haven't become a devotee, but I can see buying it occasionally for a treat. Because pomegranates are so popular right now, there are lots of recipes out there to explore.

Gluten-free! Whoopie!

2010-06-22T12:41:00.001-04:00

Saturday June 26 is the first official Maine Whoopie Pie Day. Recently whoopie pies have joined the mainstream; as the cupcake craze faded, these portable frosting sandwiches were last summer's trendiest dessert. Ten years ago, the term whoopie pie was still largely unknown outside of Maine; I went away to college in Massachusetts and was shocked to find my that classmates, even those from New England, called them "moon pies" or "black-and-whites," and snickered at my use of the term whoopie. My husband, who is from the west coast, had never heard of the dessert, and had to be informed that it is sort of like a puffy, hamburger-sized oreo.

The "bread" of the true Maine whoopie is the darkest possible devil's food, lighter than a cookie but denser than cake. The frosting is a simple blend of vegetable shortening and confectioner's sugar that melts on the tongue, immediately washing the brain in dopamine. Some people (heathens) prefer a frosting made with Marshmallow Fluff. You'll find whoopie pies served in nearly every bakery and diner throughout Maine, and sold, wrapped in plastic, beside every gas station cash register. The trouble is that none of them are vegan or gluten-free (the cake portion of the whoopie pie is usually made with eggs). I parted ways with the whoopie pie years ago, but I held on to the memories.

Earlier this week I stopped by Frank's Bakery on State Street in Bangor. They recently added a selection of gluten-free products, and though I was prepared for disappointment, I hoped I would find something that didn't contain eggs. Incredibly, Frank's offers more than a dozen gluten-free items, including breads, rolls, pizza crust, cookies, cakes, and pie. They're all made on site and frozen. Most of them are made with eggs or dairy, but I was able to walk away with a loaf of millet bread and, incredibly, a couple of whoopie pies. My excitement and disbelief were such that if they hadn't been frozen, I probably would have eaten both whoopie pies right there in my car.

Now get this: They taste like the real thing. No weirdness. No grit. They taste so much like the whoopie pies of my youth that only today, after not getting sick, do I really believe they are gluten-free. Frank's Bakery, you have given this pregnant woman back her whoopie pies, just in time for picnic season, and for that I will never be able to thank you enough. (Incidentally, the millet bread is better than anything I've found at the grocery store. It's light and airy and makes great toast. Frank's serves lunch, and I can't wait to stop in for a hummus and avocado sandwich on millet.)

So along with the rest of the world, I'll be able to celebrate Maine Whoopie Pie Day this Saturday. Dover-Foxcroft will host its annual Whoopie Pie Festival, but as it's emceed by the Marden's Lady, I plan to stay well away. If you'd like to bake up some vegan whoopies of your own this weekend, try these recipes from two of my favorite bloggers, Hannah Kaminsky and Allyson of Manifest Vegan. Eat outside, get frosting on your face, and celebrate summer like a real Mainer.

Review: Hannah Kaminsky's Blondies and Brownies

2010-06-13T18:14:00.001-04:00

When Hannah Kaminsky of BitterSweet asked me if I'd like to review her new ebook, Blondies and Brownies, I made sure I had permission to modify her recipes in order to make them gluten-free. Since different gluten-free flour blends yield drastically different results, your success with these recipes may vary.

I began with the Double-Chip Peanut Blondies (though mine were actually single-chip: vegan white chocolate chips get expensive when you have to pay shipping and handling). To replace Hannah's all purpose flour, I mixed three cups' worth of Gluten Frida Mix from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, which amounted to a little more than three cups of rice, tapioca, almond, and quinoa flours, plus some ground flax seed. I added one and a half teaspoons of xanthan gum for good measure.

Because of the xanthan gum and my bulky flour blend, the final batter was almost too thick to mix; I had to add a quarter cup of water. After 35 minutes in the oven, the brownies smelled like roasted peanuts, and the edges were dark. I allowed them to cool for several hours, but when I finally attempted to slice them, I wished I'd waited: everything underneath the top crust still resembled a thick batter. The next day the blondies were perfectly sliceable; you really do need to wait until they're completely cooled.

These blondies have a great sweet and salty peanut flavor, with highlights of gooey melted chocolate. The recipe calls for unsweetened apple butter, and because mine was heavy on the cinnamon, that flavor shone through, too. Next time I make these, I'll use a lighter gluten-free flour blend.

Next I tried the Browned Butter Pecan Praline Blondies. These fancy things require some planning ahead: you have to make candied pecans (the recipes calls for a microwave, but my stovetop worked just fine), and the browned "butter" needs a few hours in the fridge to solidify.

This time I used a Self-Rising Flour Blend from Living Without magazine, a mix of sorghum, rice, and tapioca flour with xanthan gum and baking powder. Gluten-free baking tends to be dense, so I figured the extra leavening wouldn't hurt. The batter was thinner, with a consistency that seemed just about right for brownies. Unfortunately, after 40 minutes in the oven the edges of the batter were dark brown while the center still jiggled. I thought maybe the brownies would firm up overnight, but the next day they were still sticky and uncooked and had to be thrown away. Maybe the flour mixture was wrong for this recipe, or maybe it required more time in the oven at a lower temperature. Not all gluten-free flour blends are created equal, and in this case my misguided choice ruined an afternoon's baking.

Though I had a freezer full of peanut butter blondies and a trashcan full of pecan goo, there was still one more recipe I wanted to try: German Chocolate Brownies. They were a good candidate for de-glutenizing, since the recipe called for one cup of coconut flour, one and a half of cocoa powder, and only one cup of all-purpose flour. This time, I used a version of Karina Allrich's Basic Gluten-Free Flour Mix, a blend of brown rice and quinoa flours, cornstarch, and xanthan gum.

The brownies turned out incredibly rich and almost as dense as fudge (there's no leavening agent, so I assume this was intentional, and not the fault of my flour). They're deep, dark chocolate with a hint of cinnamon. The topping, made with coconut milk, margarine, shredded coconut, and toasted pecans, is easy to whip up and hard to resist. I could have eaten it all with a spoon, but I dutifully spread it across the brownies. After a few hours, these cut into squares easily.

These recipes are just a sample of what you'll find in Hannah's ebook. She takes the concept of brownie in a dozen directions, using everything from lemon to salted caramel to avocado. The recipes are easy to follow and accompanied by yummy photos. If you're baking gluten-free, experiment with flour blends; you'll find that some of the recipes are more conducive to adaptation than others.

If you're craving something rich and sweet, give Hannah's new collection of Brownies and Blondies a try!

My New Rainy Day Comfort Food

2010-06-09T08:49:00.001-04:00

I was spending a lazy Saturday watching PBS when Lidia's Italy came on. Lidia drank wine, she sliced polenta with a string, she kissed people on both cheeks. I don't usually get excited about Italian food (not enough cumin), but when she returned to her kitchen studio and whipped out two bunches of kale, I sat up and took notice.

First Lidia made polenta (with bay leaves? good idea!), and then she sautéed the kale in bacon fat. "That could be dinner if you added white beans," I said. And sure enough, she added white beans! Did I feel clever. Once the polenta was thick and bubbly, Lidia scooped it into a shallow dish and topped it with the kale, beans, and bacon. The dish, Lidia's Polenta with White Beans and Black Kale, took less than 20 minutes to prepare. It had such potential as an easy, healthy staple meal, I knew had to veganize it.

First off, there's no need for bacon. Olive oil and lots of fresh garlic lend the kale and beans a flavor that's just as rich and interesting. Soak and cook your white beans ahead of time with some salt and bay leaves if you like, or retain the weeknight gourmet aspect of this meal by using canned beans. Lidia uses black kale, also known as Lacinato and dinosaur kale, but regular old curly kale is fine. Fiddleheads, if you can find them, would be outstanding in this rich, garlicky dish. A drizzle of really good, peppery olive oil is the perfect finishing touch.

Polenta with Kale and White Beans
(adapted from Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy)

3 cups water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
⅔ cup yellow polenta

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
8 packed cups kale, roughly chopped
½ cup low salt vegetable broth or water
2 cups cooked cannellini beans
½ teaspoon salt (reduce if broth is salty)
high quality extra-virgin olive oil (to drizzle)

In a medium saucepan, boil water, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and bay leaves. Pour in polenta, whisking to ensure no lumps form. Reduce to a gentle simmer and cover. Stir frequently.

While polenta cooks, warm 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté 30 seconds, just enough for the garlic to become fragrant but not begin to brown. Add kale and toss with garlic (this is easiest with tongs). After 2 minutes, when kale has begun to cook down, add broth, beans, and salt. Sauté another 5-6 minutes, uncovered, until most of the liquid has boiled off.

After 20 minutes, the polenta should be thick and creamy. Remove bay leaves and scoop into shallow bowls. Top with kale and beans. Drizzle additional olive oil over kale if desired.

Serves 2.

Things Have Been Slow Around Here Lately...

2010-06-06T19:27:00.001-04:00

Here's why:

Look! It's waving its bony little hand at you.

Between the fatigue, the morning (and afternoon, and evening, and middle of the night) sickness, and the intense food aversions, I haven't been up to anything special in the kitchen. Plain and starchy is where it's at. Can a person survive (and grow tiny human bones?) on rice cakes, bananas, and Peanut Butter Panda Puffs? Apparently.

Now that those lousy symptoms are mostly gone, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things as my CSA and farmers' market come back to life. I'll probably be taking some time off at the end of 2010, but until then, it's time to get some veggies in this kiddo!

Fire Up the Grill

2010-06-03T13:18:00.001-04:00

There are few things cuter than an old-fashioned charcoal grill. Since Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer (even if our temperatures are still in the 50s), we uncovered our little Weber and grilled up tofu with Brown Sugar Jalapeño Barbecue Sauce, corn on the cob, and potatoes. I'm working on a recipe for grilled potato salad, but the weather hasn't been cooperating this week. A hint: skewer and parboil your potatoes before tossing them on the fire to brown. This ensures they cook all the way through.

What are your favorite vegan foods for the grill?

Tempeh in the Newest Issue of Maine Food & Lifestyle

2010-05-26T16:47:00.001-04:00

The new issue of Maine Food & Lifestyle Magazine is finally here, and my column is now online.

I made this Tempeh Harvest Pie way back in November, but because of editorial changes at the magazine, it is just now coming out. So bookmark the recipe for autumn, or a stretch of cool, rainy weather. It's truly filling comfort food!

Edit: Tempeh is listed in the recipe's procedure, but not the ingredients. How embarrassing. You will need 8 ounces of tempeh to make four servings.

Now I Can Eat Pad Thai Every Day

2010-05-23T19:07:00.001-04:00

Last month Mark Bittman's pad Thai recipe was one of The New York Times' most emailed stories. It's no wonder Americans love pad Thai: a combination of soft, starchy noodles and crunchy, nearly-raw vegetables in a sauce that balances sweet, sour, salty, and hot, the dish appeals to every part of the tongue and quickly makes you its zombie.

In Boston I lived near a phenomenal hole in the wall Thai restaurant, and take-out tofu pad Thai became my regular Thursday pick me up. The chewy noodles soothed away the week's stresses and indignities, while lime, sugar, and chili jazzed me through one last night of correcting math tests. Leftovers, if there were any, tinged Friday morning with giddy anticipation.

I was lazy, and while I had access to take-out I never bothered to make pad Thai on my own. I assumed I couldn't recreate that magical sauce without dozens of imported ingredients. Sadly, Bangor's Thai restaurants either don't know whether their pad Thai is gluten-free, or won't go to the trouble of making it without fish sauce. I'm on my own, and the little portion of my heart that belongs to pad Thai has been lonely too long.

Bittman's recipe calls for tamarind paste, but limes are easier to find and just as good. Tamari works in place of fish sauce. Bittman suggests clubbing pad Thai's intricate flavors over the head with scrambled eggs (the man's fondness for eggs is positively indecent), but obviously we'll omit those, because we are not disgusting. Tailor the sauce to your own tastes, and add any grated or julienned vegetables you like.

Easy Vegan Pad Thai

8 ounces flat rice noodles (¼ inch wide)

Sauce:
juice from 2 limes
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup wheat-free tamari
1 teaspoon Sriracha (or other chili garlic sauce)

Stir-fry:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 ounces extra firm tofu, cubed
2 cups finely shredded green cabbage
1 large carrot, grated

Garnish:
chopped scallions
cilantro
chopped peanuts
lime wedges
mung bean sprouts

Boil a large pot of water and remove from heat. Immerse rice noodles for 6-8 minutes, until soft. Drain and toss with a drizzle of vegetable oil to keep from sticking together. Set aside.

Whisk together sauce ingredients.

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high. Fry tofu 4-5 minutes, until golden. Add garlic and toss for 1 minute. Add cabbage a carrot and immediately remove from heat. Toss until vegetables are wilted.

Toss tofu and vegetables with cooked rice noodles and sauce. Top each serving with scallions, cilantro, peanuts, bean sprouts, and a lime wedge.

Makes 3 hearty servings.

More Colorado Eating

2010-05-12T20:59:00.001-04:00

I'm home from Denver, and now that I've had a chance to unpack and do laundry, I'll share with you some other highlights of the trip.

Sweet Action Ice Cream was a bit of a hike from downtown (you can also take the #0 bus along Broadway), but worth the trip for two scoops of vegan mint chip:

Sweet Action usually offers two coconut-based vegan flavors (on the day I visited, the other was brownie swirl), and gluten-free cones are available.

We revisited City O' City and WaterCourse Foods several times; they were near our hotel, and both restaurants offered several intriguing gluten-free options. Here is City O' City's La Osa salad, with a side of barbecued tofu:

Underneath all those tortilla strips were mixed greens, dried apricots, chickpeas, red onions, and avocado. The dressing, a jalapeño lime citronette, tied everything together in a tangy way. The spicy tofu was a little dry on its own, but it would be amazing on a sandwich with vegenaise and cole slaw.

Rod was on a buffalo seitan kick, so he ordered some on top of a caesar salad:

On Cinco de Mayo, we shared this gluten-free margarita cupcake:

It was cute, but it couldn't compare to the Ho-Ho. The vanilla cake was dense, and some of the protein-heavy flours left an aftertaste (I'm guessing sorghum?). The lime frosting was crunchy and fun, but nothing special. I recommend the Ho-Ho, night after night.

On another visit I tried the Scout Cookie, a gluten-free vegan version of the Samoa:

Made from shredded sweet potato, shredded coconut, walnuts, and chocolate, it's incredibly simple and insanely delicious. It tastes just like a Samoa—no hippie flavors are discernible. Scout cookies are served cold, so the edges stay firm and crispy while the center is soft and chewy. We all know my feelings regarding coconut; I'm afraid I could eat 6 of these in a sitting.

I recommend the mashed potatoes and the chocolate cake at WaterCourse, though my nighttime pictures don't do them justice. Denver has a few other vegan-friendly restaurants (The Rebellion will make any pizza or burger on their menu vegan, and Sputnik is known for divey vegan bar food), but we skipped them because they seemed gluten-heavy.

Before leaving Colorado, we rented a car and took a day trip to Boulder and Rocky Mountain National Park to the northwest. Since Boulder is full of hippies and greenies, vegan food is easy to find. On our way up to the park, we dropped in at VG Burgers, an all-vegan fast food restaurant. I'd heard mixed reviews, but I couldn't resist a menu that included vegan milkshakes and veggie burgers on gluten-free buns. Here is Rod's *ahem* bacon cheeseburger:

It was just a mess of pickles, vegenaise, ketchup, tempeh bacon, and cheeze sauce. He liked it. I ordered the standard veggie burger. It was gritty and tasted like seaweed, but it was alright as a vehicle for ketchup. I was disappointed with my coconut-based milkshake, which was slushy and thin. VG Burgers is a novelty, but I'd never take anyone there who isn't familiar with and amused by vegan food.

Dinner in Boulder, at upscale Leaf, was much better. I ordered a banana tofu curry, which was a crazy mix of soft sweet bananas, savory tofu and firm vegetables, and a rich spicy sauce. I was afraid to pull out my giant camera in such a posh restaurant, but this rather dull picture taken with my purse-sized camera conveys the dish's artsy presentation:

Rod had a bowl of spicy kimchi soup and the Asian Mizuna Salad with wakame seaweed, mizuna greens, carrots, water chestnuts, snow peas, bamboo shoots, and sesame sweet chili vinaigrette. Everything tasted fresh, healthy, and creative, down to my sweet and sour mint lemonade.

Between eating bouts in Boulder, we spent the day driving on mountain roads. It was cold at 11,000 feet (many of the peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park reach over 14,000 feet, but the roads were closed because of snow):

The best part of the trip was seeing the park's wildlife, including bighorn sheep, elk, and this fearless chipmunk, who came within six feet of our camera:

Look at his little knuckles!

I'm happy to be home, and eating light to recover from last week's dessert bender. Rod is already talking about finding some buffalo seitan around these parts, but I think he may be out of luck.

Farewell for now...

Mile High Vegan

2010-05-05T19:42:00.001-04:00

I'm eating my way through Denver this week, so I thought I'd share with you some of the city's vegan and gluten-free highlights. When I think about Colorado cuisine, I think buffalo meat and rocky mountain oysters, but like most major cities, Denver has a respectable selection of plant-based (and testicle-free) fare.

After arriving in Denver, our first stop was WaterCourse Foods, a vegetarian restaurant with a vegan-friendly menu. The atmosphere was bright, casual, friendly, and young.

WaterCourse serves sandwiches and dinner entrées, but they are known for brunch, which is available until 5pm. Choices include vegan and vegetarian scrambles, omelets, pancakes, and pastries. All of the scrambles are gluten-free, and instead of deep-fried breakfast potatoes and toast, you can ask for brown rice and corn tortillas.

I had the Capri Scramble with tofu, Greek olives, tomatoes, grilled zucchini and carrots, and fresh basil (sheep's milk feta is optional). The flavors were good (you can't go wrong with green olives), but the scramble was wet and crumbly.

Portions were modest, so we had room after lunch for Sweet Action vanilla ice cream. It's coconut-based, which is a plus in my book, and the texture is perfectly smooth and creamy. WaterCourse offers it by the scoop, or you can enjoy it in one of their vegan milkshakes.

Almost everything at WaterCourse Foods is available vegan, and about half of it can be made gluten-free. Four chickpeas for ample choices!

For dinner, we headed to City O' City, a vegetarian coffee shop, bar, and restaurant located near the state capital building.

Operated by the folks from WaterCourse Foods, City O' City is hip, edgy, and geared toward adults. They boast an impressive selection of whiskey and Colorado microbrews; a sign above the bar endorses daytime drinking. While WaterCourse Foods feels clean and airy, City O' City is dark and graffitied, and most of the iPhone-using diners and drinkers sport self-consciously disheveled hairstyles and tattoos of literary significance.

City O' City is next door to WaterCourse Bakery, which supplies both restaurants with vegan and gluten-free breads and pastries. Many of City O' City's appetizers are gluten-free, including a Mediterranean plate with hummus, olives, and gluten-free flatbread. Salads, pizza, and the occasional entrée can be made gluten-free. Sandwiches and wraps cannot.

Thrilled at the opportunity to eat a pizza I didn't make myself, I ordered the La Chagall on WaterCourse Bakery's gluten-free crust. It comes with apricot sauce, brie (I substituted the house cashew ricotta), green olives, roasted garlic, and fresh tarragon.

It was truly, truly weird. At home I would never be brave enough to make something this bizarre, but somehow it all worked. I would order apricot pizza again. The crust, made mostly of chickpea flour, was delicious but insanely filling; I had to cry uncle after three slices.

Rod ordered a Buffalo Seitan Wrap with fries. He reports it was intensely tangy and spicy, and his mouth burned for hours after dinner (that is a good thing). It was also quite filling.

Of course the highlight of my visit to City O' City was the pastry case. According to WaterCourse Bakery's website, they strive to create gluten-free vegan baked goods that are even better than traditional pastries ("We have failed when someone comments, 'that's pretty good for vegan or gluten-free'"). I was skeptical, but wanted desperately to be proved wrong.

The evening's selection included Ho Ho Cupcakes, Hazelnut Chocolate Cupcakes, Sugar Cookies, and a giant version of Girl Scout Samoas. I was torn, but I went with a Ho Ho, because 1) it was shiny, and 2) personal experience has shown me that gluten-free cake is more difficult to pull off than gluten-free cookies.

Underneath that soft, shiny ganache was a layer of fluffy white buttercream, a layer of dark chocolate cake, more buttercream, and finally more cake.

My thoughts upon eating the Ho Ho Cupcake:

1. What?!? This is so good! Not even a little bit weird! They're lying—no way this is gluten-free!
2. How did they do this?! I am so jealous.
3. This tastes exactly like the chocolate cake my mom used to make.
4. Is there a WaterCourse Bakery cookbook? (Sadly, no.)
5. Why don't I live in Denver?

I can't wait to go back and try every other gluten-free thing in that case. Four chickpeas for City O' City!

Spinach Salad with Maple Mustard Vinaigrette

2010-04-27T21:54:00.001-04:00

No sooner do I write a post about spring salad than the forecast calls for snow. Thank goodness for greenhouses, I guess.

You can find the recipe for this antioxidant-rich salad here, at the blog of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.

Coconut Cupcakes and a Winner!

2010-04-22T12:26:00.001-04:00

I enlisted Ellie's help in choosing a winner for the Pay it Forward Giveaway. Our highly scientific system consisted of her repeatedly biting and slapping a hat full of names until one fell out. And the winner is...

The first of the two Andreas who commented, Seattle Andrea of Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking! (Just after I took a picture of that paper slip, Ellie ate it.) Congratulations, Andrea! Send me your address, and I'll get a package of Maine treats right out to you.

Let's celebrate with some cupcakes!

I decided to give Flying Apron's Gluten-free & Vegan Baking Book another try, using the recipe for Coconut Heaven Cake. The recipe calls for 2 parts brown rice flour and 1 part chickpea flour, and there is definitely some chickpea aftertaste going on. If you're used to gluten-free baking, you might be okay with it, but normal people will think these are weird.

There was no mention of xanthan or guar gum, so, skeptic that I am, I made half the cupcakes according to the recipe, then added ½ teaspoon of xanthan gum to the second half of the batter. After the suggested baking time of 15 minutes, the cupcakes were still gooey in the middle, so I kept them in for another 5 minutes.

The cupcakes made with xanthan gum turned out much darker than those without, and, no surprise, they were more cohesive. The cupcakes without xanthan gum were more moist, but they were nearing burnt on the bottom while the tops were still gooey.

If I make these again, I'll try adding ½ teaspoon of xanthan gum to the whole batch to see if I can strike a balance between moist and sturdy. I'll also try swapping some of the chickpea flour for another high protein flour like quinoa or almond. Additional notes:

•The recipe claims to make a 9-inch three-layer cake or 33 cupcakes. I halved it and got 24 cupcakes, so go figure.

•Shredded coconut is listed among the ingredients, but the procedure never tells you when to add it. I mixed it in with the dry ingredients.

•Maybe lowering the baking temperature from 350°F to 325°F would help.

•I made Flying Apron's Coconut Heaven Frosting (a combination of agave and coconut oil), but instead of mixing shredded coconut into the frosting, I sprinkled it on the tops of the cupcakes. I cut the recipe by two-thirds and had enough to frost 24 cupcakes. I won't make this frosting again. It's expensive, sickly sweet, messy (it melts in a warm room), and when I eat it, all I can think about is saturated fat nestling down to rest in my arteries. I should have used the Coconut Icing (coconut milk plus confectioner's sugar) from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

These were okay for gluten-free cupcakes. I won't be serving them to other people. Still, it's a place to start. I'll figure it out eventually.

Knitting In The Old Way

2010-04-20T16:08:00.001-04:00

Nothing interesting or inspiring has come out of my kitchen this week. I've been a under the weather, and nobody wants to see photos of plain rice and breakfast cereal. Yesterday I finally got up the energy and the optimism for a gluten-free yeasted bread, but I won't be sharing the recipe here, because it was disgusting.

Fortunately, I've been having more success with knitting. Thanks to a series of classes offered at Fiberphilia this spring, I can finally knit a sweater. When I was a new knitter, without a local yarn shop to help me find my way in the world, I wasted skeins of expensive yarn knitting cubist sweaters: front longer than the back, left sleeve inches higher than the right. I learned, incorrectly, that sweaters are knit in flat pieces—front, back, sleeves—and sewn together at the end. I was relying on patterns to tell me how many stitches I needed, and how many rows to knit. If I couldn't achieve the number of stitches per inch used in the sample, I couldn't make the sweater.

But the mothers and grandmothers of northern Europe didn't knit that way; they created warm, well-fitting works of art without patterns to tell them whether they were doing it right. They considered their yarn, the needs of the wearer, and the proportions of torso, arms, chest, and neck. Knitting in the Old Way: Designs and Techniques from Ethnic Sweaters contains the collected wisdom of centuries of free-form sweater knitting. It was the textbook for Fiberphilia's sweater series.

My first project was a miniature version of the Icelander:

Instead of knitting this sweater in pieces, I knit the body as a tube, bottom to top, and steeked (cut) holes for arms. I never would have been brave enough to try steeking on my own, but it's so quick and logical, and it allows for easy knitting with two (or three, or four!) colors.

My favorite part of the sweater is the traditional stripe that is carried up the side of the body, under the armpit, and down the sleeve. When I make myself an adult sized version of this Icelander, I will never stop waving to people and doing the YMCA.

My next project was an Icelandic yoke sweater:

I sewed tubes for the lower body and arms, then joined all the tubes together on a long circular needle and knit around and around and around, decreasing in a few spots. Easy!

Knitting in the Old Way provides the sketches and guidance you need to design traditional sweaters with any yarn, for any body. A bit of math is involved, but it's nothing more than simple ratios. Given a chest measurement, how wide should a neck be? What about shoulders and wrists? Using your chosen yarn, how many stitches should you aim for?

What looks intimidating at first glance is simply working backward from measurements of the body the sweater will go on. It couldn't be more logical, or more liberating. I'm ready to ditch my old books of patterns and start designing from scratch.

For the first time in my life, sweaters make more sense than bread!

Pay It Forward Giveaway!

2010-04-15T11:46:00.001-04:00

Yesterday a package arrived from Redondo Beach, California. I had almost forgotten—my pay it forward gift from Easy Veggie blogger Oraphan!

The box was thoughtfully packed with a Redondo Beach teeshirt, map, and bottle opener, as well as stationary, freeze dried fruit, tea (not pictured) and a handy salad crisper bag.

Oraphan, how did you know I collect regional magnets? The Redondo Beach dolphin fits right in beside my Swedish viking and Las Vegas poker chip.

Pay it Forward is a blog contest with a simple premise: everybody likes receiving presents out of context. As the winner of Oraphan's giveaway, I now get to pass on the fun by mailing a package of my own to one lucky reader, who will then pay it forward by sending a gift to someone else, and so on into eternity... The only stipulation is that the items should be produced locally. I rarely participate in blog games, but I can't resist an opportunity to show off some of my favorite Maine-made products!

If you'd like to receive a package from Maine, leave a comment letting me know you're in. (Remember, if you're the winner, you'll have to pay it forward!) Readers outside the U.S. and Canada are welcome to participate, if they are patient enough to wait for cheap (and slow) international shipping. I'll choose a winner in one week, on Thursday, April 22. The contents of the box have yet to be determined, but I can promise something maple!

An Easy Square Meal with Local Tempeh

2010-04-12T19:13:00.001-04:00

I'm a big fan of stews, stir-fries, and other one pot dishes, but lately I've been enjoying a good old-fashioned square meal—protein, carbohydrate, and vegetable—several times a week.

Each time I visit the Belfast Co-op, I pick up a few packages of Lalibela Farm Tempeh, made in Maine from Maine soy beans. Like tofu, tempeh absorbs the flavors of marinades (it's particularly good with barbecue sauce). Tempeh is higher in protein and fiber than tofu, with a substantial nutty texture; I enjoy its slightly sour, fermented flavor, but this can be toned down by boiling the tempeh. Lalibela tempeh is softer and absorbs marinade better than Lightlife, the brand available in most grocery stores here. (Jaime and Andy Berhanu of Lalibela are currently testing several types of non-soy tempeh, including chickpea and navy bean; read about their black bean tempeh here).

Some nights I make my tempeh hot and smoky, and other nights I prefer this rich, mild marinade with warming Asian flavors. Truthfully, there's no need to measure the ingredients—it's more instinct and whimsy than science. Main dishes don't come easier than this; the only trick is planning ahead and placing the tempeh in the marinade at lunchtime, or in the morning before you leave for work. Serve hot with rice and Asian vegetables, and serve the leftovers cold with peanuts, scallions, and sesame noodles.

Sesame Garlic Tempeh

8 ounces tempeh
¼ cup tamari (gluten-free if necessary)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon maple syrup (or other sweetener)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Bring a small pot of water to boil. Cut tempeh into four triangles (cut a typical rectangular block into squares, then cut each of these squares in half diagonally). Place tempeh in boiling water. Set timer for 10 minutes.

In a container big enough to fit all four tempeh triangles, whisk together tamari, sesame oil, maple syrup, garlic, and ginger (a sandwich-sized tupperware works well). When 10 minutes are up, use tongs to remove tempeh from boiling water and place in marinade. Spoon some marinade on top of tempeh slices. Refrigerate 4-8 hours.

Place tempeh in a shallow baking dish and top with a few spoonfuls of marinade.* Broil 10-15 minutes on each side, until tempeh is golden brown and edges begin to blacken.

Serves 2.

*Don't throw away the remaining marinade! Add 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar and toss with salad greens or steamed vegetables.

Gluten-free Granola

2010-04-08T17:46:00.001-04:00

Recently I've fallen in love with buckwheat groats. Though they sound like something a troll would eat, groats are fiber, protein, and iron-rich seeds popular in gluten-free and raw cuisine (nutrition information here). Toasted buckwheat (also called kasha) is wonderfully crunchy; it reminds me of Grape-Nuts. It's delicious (and filling) mixed into yogurt.

I'd given up on granola, since I don't handle gluten-free oats well, but roasted buckwheat offers a perfect substitute. Some people recommend soaking buckwheat groats before they're cooked, to make them easier to digest. I skipped this step and bought roasted groats (also called kasha) at my natural foods store. If you have a dehydrator, or 24 hours to monitor a 150-degree oven, you may want to soak (or sprout!) and dry your own buckwheat groats, if that's your thing.

This healthy granola's got it all: protein, fiber, iron, healthy omega-3 oils, and most importantly, flavor and crunch. I've listed my ingredients, but use whatever seeds, nuts, and dried fruit float your boat.

Easy Buckwheat Granola

⅓ cup maple syrup
¼ cup nut or seed butter (I used almond)
2 cups toasted buckwheat groats (kasha)
½ cup finely shredded coconut
½ cup slivered almonds
⅓ cup pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds)
⅓ cup sunflower seeds
⅓ cup raisins
⅓ cup dried cherries
¼ cup dried blueberries

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Whisk together maple syrup and nut butter. Add kasha, finely shredded coconut, and almonds. Toss to coat. Spread in a thin layer on a baking sheet. Toast mixture for 20 minutes, tossing halfway through. Remove from oven and cool. Toss with remaining ingredients. Store in an airtight container.

Serve dry or with milk, or mixed into yogurt. Makes 6-7 cups.

(If your body is on friendly terms with oats, you might also like this müesli recipe.)

Belfast, Maine: Where to Eat and What to Do

2010-04-05T15:15:00.001-04:00

At the end of last summer we moved to a needy old house about 15 minutes south of Bangor. One of the best things about our new location (besides the absence of people napping in our entryway while waiting for the cigarette shop to open) is our proximity to Belfast. Now that Belfast's shops, cafes, and waterfront parks are only a 40-minute ride away, we visit a few times a month.

Belfast has a lot going on for a city of less than ten thousand residents, but unlike some of the coastal towns farther south, it doesn't feel like a show put on solely for tourists. Main Street runs downhill and dead ends at the dramatic waterfront, where the Passagassawakeag River (say that five times fast) empties into Belfast Bay. The parks along the water are a great place to picnic and watch sailboats, and all spring, summer, and fall, you will see locals doing this. Most of the city's nineteenth century commercial buildings still stand downtown, filled with eclectic small businesses that eschew the plastic lobsters and blueberry candles sold in many Maine gift shops in favor of thoughtful, handmade goods and local art.

I love browsing in The Green Store, which bills itself as a general store for the twenty-first century. From nontoxic cleaning solutions, to composting barrels, to wooden drying racks and organic cotton toys, The Green Store sells everything you need to pursue that quintessential Maine dream of living sustainably off the grid. I also get a kick out of Yo Mamma's Home, a home goods and gift shop selling fun, funky, one-of-a-kind items like bags, shower curtains, stationary, and jewelry. The Good Table sets my heart a-flutter, with every imaginable kitchen gadget on display. So far all I've bought are cookie cutters (they sell at least a hundred shapes), but I love to look and touch and drool. Heavenly Socks Yarns is just up the street; practically every yarn, needle, and button in existence is crammed into this tiny basement shop.

If you're hungry after all your shopping, Belfast boasts several vegan-friendly eateries. If it's breakfast or lunchtime, you must go to Chase's Daily (which I reviewed here). The menu is vegetarian, but at least a third of it is vegan, and many items can be prepared gluten-free. The produce comes from the Chase family farm, and during the growing season the back half of the restaurant doubles as a fruit and vegetable market.

If it's too late in the afternoon for Chase's, Bay Wrap, just a few doors up Main Street, offers many vegetarian and vegan sandwiches, and the coffee shop in the same building carries soy milk for lattes.

The Belfast Co-op Cafe is another great spot for breakfast or lunch. You can order a vegan deli sub, soup, or a tofu scramble (made with local tofu), and the bakery case carries several vegan items. Admire local artwork or play checkers while you eat, then shop for organic produce and herbal remedies in the Co-op Store. Remember to bring your own grocery bags and containers for bulk items, or you may receive scowls.

Here's a sampling of meals I've enjoyed in Belfast:

Clockwise from top left: tofu breakfast burrito (made gluten-free with corn tortillas) from Chase's Daily, black beans and rice with a side of kale from Chase's Daily, Dehli Deelite wrap from Bay Wrap, and scrambled tofu with home fries from the Belfast Co-op Cafe. Don't you feel hungry (and healthy) just looking at all that?

If you're planning to visit the coast of Maine, spend an afternoon in Belfast. It's one of my favorite little places, and because most tourists stop at Camden, it's still friendly and genuine. If it's a weekend morning, you may see me at brunch!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T14:17:00.001-04:00

This little bunny is enjoying the spring weather. Find the pattern at the Mochimochi shop—it's a two-hour knit, tops!

Get outside today and smell the flowers!

God's Own Patriotic Comfort Food

2010-04-01T12:17:00.001-04:00

Maybe it's the rainy weather, but this week I've been craving comfort foods: baked beans, mashed potatoes, and sautéed greens. American Chop Suey is a hearty staple dish at church potlucks and school cafeterias. Traditionally made with macaroni elbows, tomato sauce, onions, and ground beef, a bowl of American Chop Suey fills you up and warms you from the inside out.

In a recent discussion with my husband, who is From Away, I learned that only New Englanders call this vaguely Italian hodgepodge by a Chinese name. To most Americans it's simply Macaroni and Beef, though oddly, midwesterners call it Johnny Marzetti. By any name, it's a meal that satisfies our deepest human need for protein, starch, and salt all mixed up in a bowl. (I'm reminded of my father-in-law, on his most recent visit to Maine, attempting in vain to order Chili Size, a similar slop with a Tex-Mex twist that's revered throughout the southwest.)

Instead of ground beef, this healthier vegan version of American Chop Suey uses crumbled tempeh (use something like Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumbles if you prefer) and an assortment of chopped vegetables. Even if you can eat gluten, try quinoa pasta here; sturdier than rice or wheat, it adds even more protein to this classic stick-to-your-ribs dish.

American Chop Veggie
-or-
Vegan Marzetti
-or-
Macaroni and Tempeh

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
8 ounces tempeh
1½ cups sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons vegan worcestershire sauce or tamari (wheat-free, if necessary)
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
28-ounce can roasted diced tomatoes
8 ounces pasta (any small shape)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)

In a large skillet, warm oil over medium heat. Sauté onion 4-5 minutes, until edges begin to brown. Add garlic and sauté another 2 minutes. Add bell pepper and carrot and sauté an additional 4-5 minutes, until vegetables begin to soften.

Crumble tempeh into bite-sized pieces over skillet. Add mushrooms, worcestershire sauce or tamari, thyme, oregano, basil, chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Toss to mix well. Sauté 3 minutes, until mushrooms are soft. Add diced tomatoes and their liquid. Stir and reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15 minutes.

Cook pasta according to package directions. When pasta is al dente, drain and toss with vegetable mixture. Stir in nutritional yeast.

Serves 6.

Pancakes, Again (it's Maple Syrup Season)

2010-03-25T15:44:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday, Chase's Daily was serving the most adorable blueberry-cornmeal pancakes. They were off limits for me, so I made due (*sigh*) with a tofu scramble burrito, but since then I've been trying to duplicate those pancakes without using eggs or gluten.

Maine Maple Sunday is this weekend, so pancakes are timely. (On the Maine Maple Producers Association website there's a map that'll help you locate participating sugarhouses.) This spring warmed up early and stayed warm, and that's lousy weather for making maple syrup: sap runs when the nights are below freezing and the days are about twenty degrees warmer. Syrup will be scarce this year, and prices may get as high as $70 a gallon. In true locavore style, many people around town have sap buckets hanging from their own trees (one of my more eccentric neighbors has even tapped a utility pole). Unfortunately our maples are Norway, not Sugar, and they had some funky virus in the fall so I wouldn't eat anything leaking out of them, anyway.

Developing recipes without gluten takes a lot more trial and error than I'm comfortable with. It hurts my soul to throw away rubbery reject pancakes, even when they're not fit for human consumption. At least I've learned one important lesson from this week's pancake trials: corn flour makes things dense, and has no business in pancakes. Corn meal is where it's at.

These pancakes aren't light and fluffy like the ones I posted earlier this month. They're thin, and the edges are wonderfully crunchy. They're like a slightly sweet cornbread; fruit and maple syrup are the perfect accompaniment. Though I originally set out to make cornmeal pancakes with blueberries, I actually prefer them with raspberries. Use any type of berry, or skip the fruit altogether and serve them with vegan margarine.

Gluten-free Cornmeal Pancakes

¼ cup + 2 tablespoons brown rice flour
 ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons tapioca or potato starch
½ cup corn meal
 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
 1 teaspoon baking powder
 ¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup rice milk
 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
¼ cup berries (optional)

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Mix dry ingredients—rice flour, potato starch, corn meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt—in a medium bowl. Add rice milk and oil and whisk until just combined.

Spray or lightly coat skillet with oil. Pour batter onto skillet 1/4 cup at a time. Sprinkle a tablespoon of berries on top of each pancake. Cook 2-3 minutes, until bubbles form on top of pancakes and edges look dry. Flip, and cook an additional 1-2 minutes, until undersides are browned.

Yields four 6-inch pancakes

Need a Hug?

2010-03-22T12:43:00.001-04:00

I have officially gone off the deep end and become a batty old lady. Instead of knitting useful objects, like hats and sweaters, I spent the weekend watching C-SPAN and making affectionate monsters.

It won't be long until I'm lining up Beanie Babies along the headrests in the back of my car.

I'd been eyeing this pattern since Hannah Kaminsky's Valentine's post. It's available at MochiMochi Land (along with an anthropomorphized campfire and this teeny tiny vacuum cleaner). At first I was intimidated by all the sewing, stuffing, and i-cord, but I made it through with the help of some online tutorials, and picked up some new skills. You want me to backstitch eyelids for you? No problem.

This was a quick, compelling knit—once the body was finished, the hair, horns, arms, legs were so quick and so fun that I couldn't put my needles down. These things are addicting, and I think I've caught the bug. I sense the future holds more cute but useless yarn creations...

Make Soup With Whatever You Have

2010-03-18T16:29:00.001-04:00

When I was younger and learning to cook, I used to follow a recipe for everything. I measured and weighed and ran out to the store any time I was missing an ingredient. Before I learned how textures and flavors work together, I really thought a half teaspoon of tarragon was difference between delicious and inedible.

I loosened up as I gained experience, and while I still follow recipes for baking, most of my main dishes are off the top of my head. I keep a running tally of what's in my cupboards, my freezer, and my vegetable drawer. I walk the dogs in the afternoon and daydream about what I'd like for dinner. Most of the time I can make it happen, but when things don't work out I usually learn something new.

As the weather warms up, my urge to clean includes emptying my cupboards of all the dried beans, rice, nuts, and pasta I bought in bulk and neglected. Soon it will be all I can do to keep up with local produce, so it's time to use up what I've got in storage.

Vegetable and bean soup is one of those easy, versatile dishes I can whip up with basic ingredients and almost no planning. It lets me finish off vegetables that are on their last legs, and the seasoning can go in any direction. Rather than give you a recipe (I'm sure you've got several!), I'll share my fast-and-loose method for vegetable soup.

Here is last night's dinner. It contained:

olive oil
onion
minced garlic
chopped carrots
cooked, cubed sweet potato
cooked black beans
vegetable broth
cumin
oregano
chili powder
salt
bay leaves
pepper
chopped tomatoes

I sautéed the vegetables first in olive oil, then added black beans and broth a cup at a time until the soup looked right. For the seasoning, I used the time-honored technique of add—stir—taste—repeat until the soup tasted right. I let it simmer for 20 or 30 minutes, adding the tomatoes toward the end. Voilà, soup!

Topped with sliced avocado and lime juice, it was deliciously sweet and earthy. Fresh cilantro would have been good, as would bell peppers and coconut milk, but this was a no shopping meal, and the soup was fine without (though I liked the combination of black beans, sweet potato, and cumin enough that I'm going to keep working with it, and maybe create a new recipe).

This is the way I cook all summer, when dinner is as simple as washing and chopping vegetables from our CSA and tossing them with beans and grains from the cupboard. In summer I like to use fresh herbs, but I'm limited to dried in winter. Unless I'm testing a recipe, I wing it, going wherever my taste buds take me. I rely on the following guidelines:

For Italian-style soups, I use:
• oregano
• basil
• thyme
• garlic

For Mexican:
• cumin
• oregano
• garlic
• chili peppers (fresh, dried, or ground)
• lime juice

Indian:
• cumin
• coriander
• turmeric
• ginger
• cinnamon
• chili peppers (fresh, dried, or ground)
• lemon juice

Thai:
• ginger (freshly grated)
• garlic
• coconut milk
• chili peppers (fresh or dried)
• peanuts or peanut butter
• kaffir lime leaves (or plain old lime juice)

Thanksgiving at Grandma's:
• thyme
• sage
• bay leaves

Vegetables, beans, and grains have flavors of their own; I strive for a balance between hot and creamy, sweet and sour, fresh and savory. These combinations have worked for me:

• winter squash, black beans, Mexican, Indian, or Thai seasoning
• chickpeas or cannellini beans, tomatoes, chopped kale, chard, or spinach, Italian seasoning
• leeks, potatoes, wild rice, garlic, Thanksgiving at Grandma's seasoning

The possibilities are endless, and soup is hard to mess up (just beware of red cabbage and beets: they turn everything magenta).

Which dishes do you like to make without a recipe?

Tempeh Stuffed Cabbage at Maine Food & Lifestyle

2010-03-15T20:46:00.001-04:00

Looking for a St. Patrick's Day dinner? Get my recipe for Tempeh Stuffed Cabbage at Maine Food & Lifestyle. It's great with mashed potatoes!

Salted Peanut Brittle

2010-03-12T07:30:00.001-05:00

I married someone who loves candy but couldn't care less about pastries. (I know! What is wrong with him?!) Peanut brittle is one of his favorites, so I make it when I feel like being extra nice. I've adapted a Mrs. Fields recipe for Macadamia Nut Brittle, using vegan ingredients and a little peanut butter. It's a sugary splurge for sure, to be consumed in moderation. Salted peanuts make all the difference here: this sweet-and-salty peanut brittle is downright addictive.

Salted Peanut Brittle
Adapted from Mrs. Fields Cookie Book

1 cup salted peanuts
6 ounces non-hydrogenated vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup water
1½ tablespoons natural peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon baking soda

Grease the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish or a cookie sheet with edges, and spread peanuts in a single layer.

Stir margarine, sugar, water, and peanut butter over medium heat until sugar crystals melt. Raise heat to medium-high. Monitor mixture, stirring occasionally, until it begins to darken. (If you have a candy thermometer, heat until mixture reaches 250°F.)

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and baking soda. Immediately pour over peanuts and spread with the back of a spoon.

As peanut brittle cools, it will be sticky and chewy (not brittle). Allow it to sit for at least 3 hours, until firm enough that you can easily free it from the cookie sheet and break it into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

Review: SodaStream Penguin

2010-03-10T10:49:00.001-05:00

I don't usually review kitchen tools because I don't want this blog to read like a glorified Williams-Sonoma catalog, but the Sodastream Penguin is worth sharing. We used to buy sparkling water in bulk. (One member of our household, who shall remain nameless, is a recovering soda fiend. As methadone is to heroin, sparkling water is to Diet Coke.) With all the money we're not spending on Pellegrino and Poland Spring, the Penguin, a countertop gadget that carbonates tap water in seconds, paid for itself in less than 6 months.

The Penguin is easy to use: you just fill a reusable, dishwasher-safe glass carafe with cold water, drop it in, and press the beak-like lever a half dozen times. No clean-up and no electricity, and best of all, no plastic bottles to dispose of. The only upkeep is exchanging empty CO2 cylinders every 110 liters, using prepaid UPS shipping boxes.

SodaStream offers soda concentrates in flavors like classic cola, root beer, and diet pink grapefruit, but I'm enjoying sparkling water mixed with last summer's Sunshine Rhubarb Juice and Strawberry Lemonade. I'll take the occasional homemade sugary beverage over diet sodas full of mystery dyes and sweeteners. Sometimes I jazz up plain sparkling water with fruit instead. Blueberries look elegant in the bottom of a martini glass:

If you're a fan of bubbles, or are trying to cut back on soda, the Penguin is fun, convenient, and will save you money in the long run. See the SodaStream website for photos and videos of the Penguin and other seltzer-making gadgets.

____________________________________________________

A word about product reviews:

Occasionally I receive invitations to try products free of charge and review them on my blog. So far, I've yet to take any companies up on these offers, because I didn't feel the products were a good fit. They were either:

1. not vegan,
2. not gluten-free, or
3. not something I could imagine using in real life.

So far, all reviews have been unsolicited and products have been purchased with My Own Money. I'd love it if some Lärabars and a Tofu Xpress came pouring in free of charge, but no such luck so far. If, in the future, I do review a product I've received for free, I'll let you know, for I am a pillar of integrity.

Cheers!

Scarves No; Cowls Yes

2010-03-08T11:26:00.001-05:00

Like most beginning knitters, I made a lot of scarves while I was learning the basics. Back and forth, row after row, I'd get out my tape measure after only two feet to see how much was left to go. I like wearing scarves, but knitting them got old fast. I've become a fan of the cowl, a more entertaining solution for cold necks. I love knitting in the round; I can really get on a tear when I don't have to turn my work at the end of each row.

The pattern for this Crofter's Cowl is available for free on Ravelry. Instead of working two halves in the horseshoe lace pattern and grafting them together, I knit six pattern repeats and called it a day; all my horseshoes point in the same direction, and there was no pesky sewing.

I am not overstating things when I say I am in love with this cowl. I can't stop looking at it. I can't stop wearing it, even inside the house. It's so soft and so purple I almost want to eat it.

Whence comes the inspiration for this lovely and practical Crofter's Cowl? According to the Scottish Crofting Federation, a crofter is a tenant farmer in the Scottish Highlands. I like to imagine hearty crofting matriarchs sitting before a peat fire, knitting up wee lacy cowls for the men out working the soggy hillsides. Spring in Maine can be like the Scottish Highlands—relentlessly windy and damp—but a flash of purple keeps my chin warm and my spirits up.

It doesn't get any better than this.

Maple Syrup Needs Pancakes

2010-03-05T10:29:00.001-05:00

It seems our wet, brown, snowless winter is already over (unlike the mid-Atlantic, we've had nary a flake since December). Temperatures reach the 40s most days, our yards are turning to mud, and the sap is beginning to run. The spring melt means that Maine Maple Sunday is approaching, so I've been making pancakes.

There are lots of recipes for vegan pancakes, and lots of recipes for gluten-free pancakes, but gluten-free vegan pancakes? Not many. I am a goddang trailblazer.

The talented and meticulous a-k of Swell Vegan posted Gluten-free Gingerbread Buckwheat Pancakes in December. I played with buckwheat pancake recipes for awhile, but they felt and tasted like pulverized cardboard. I want to like buckwheat, but maybe it's an acquired taste I'll have to work toward. I decided instead to strive for soft, fluffy, nutritionally void diner-style flapjacks, the kind that soak up syrup like sponges and disintegrate in your mouth, washing all your cells in glucose almost the instant they hit your tongue.

After much consideration of protein, starch, and fiber, I had the most success with this recipe, described by the original poster as "not bad." Replacing the eggs, milk, and melted butter with vegan alternatives was easy. I was skeptical of using rice and almond flour, which tend to be grainy, but the resulting pancakes were smooth and fluffy with a golden nutty flavor. The flax seed provides plenty of binding, so even without xanthan or guar gum, these pancakes hold up well in a maple syrup bath.

Fluffy Gluten-Free Vegan Pancakes

2 tablespoons ground flax seed
6 tablespoons water
1 cup rice flour (brown, white, or a mix of both)
 1/2 cup potato starch
 1/2 cup almond flour
 3 teaspoons granulated sugar
 3 teaspoons baking powder
 1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of nutmeg (optional)
 1 cup soy or rice milk
 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 1/3 cup wild blueberries (optional)

Whisk flax seed and water together in a small bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes; mixture will thicken.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Mix dry ingredients—rice flour, potato starch, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg—in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, mix wet ingredients—soy milk, oil, vanilla, and flax mixture. Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk until just combined.

Spray or lightly coat skillet with oil. Pour batter onto skillet 1/4 cup at a time. Sprinkle a tablespoon of blueberries on top of each pancake if desired. Flip when bubbles form on top of pancakes and edges look dry. Cook an additional 1-2 minutes, until undersides are browned.

Yields 8 4-inch pancakes

How to Pack a Tiffin

2010-03-01T20:33:00.001-05:00

Nothing brightens a dreary workday like a thoughtfully packed lunch. If I've got something delicious or unusual waiting in the fridge, the whole morning seems special. Unfortunately, few people treat themselves to a healthy, exciting, substantial midday meal. (Teachers must be the worst—if they get a lunch break at all, they spend it making copies and responding to email, and inhale a yogurt as the kids come in from recess.) Packing lunch is a simple chore, but taking a few moments to enjoy something flavorful, colorful, and fun will replenish your energy and make you feel human again, no matter how wild your morning.

I recently purchased a 3-tier tiffin from To-Go Ware. Unbuckling and unstacking the metal layers is a sensory event, a visual and tactile experience superior to popping open a tupperware or plastic bag. Having several small, compact containers allows me to enjoy a variety of flavors, textures, and colors.

Though I pack my tiffins slightly differently each day (I need variety), my general guidelines are as follows:

•Bottom layer: bean and/or grain salad, usually the protein source and heaviest part of the meal
•Middle layer: raw fruit or veggies
•Top layer: dip (in the 2-ounce sidekick container), nuts, some kind of sweet

There are endless possibilities, so this setup never gets old.

Chickpea salad on quinoa, celery sticks, clementines, and homemade cinnamon-almond butter.

Since metal tiffins can't be microwaved, I pack foods that can be eaten cold or at room temperature. This tangy Italian-inspired chickpea salad comes together in five minutes, and it packs a lot of protein and flavor. When I'm out of chickpeas, I use lentils and it's just as tasty.

Quickpea Chickpea Salad

2 cups cooked (or canned) chickpeas
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 small carrot, grated
chopped herbs, dried or fresh (basil and parsley are nice)
freshly ground black pepper (lots)

Toss all ingredients in a bowl. Taste and adjust flavors. Serve over cooked grains (try quinoa for added protein) or salad greens. Serves 2.

Tiffins' fun to cost ratio is out of this world, and I suggest you treat yourself to a set, but even if you're working with tupperware and brown bags, pack something that brings you energy and joy.

What are your favorite packed-lunch foods?

Sunshine Socks

2010-02-25T13:20:00.001-05:00

I've been knitting for a little more than five years, but I completed my first pair of socks this morning. They're just your basic, no-frills socks, knit with lemons-and-sunshine washable yarn.

The weather today is disgusting (it's February—where is our snow?!?), but my cheery new socks lighten the mood.

Knitty's Socks 101 explains the basics of sock construction and design—it may be the only sock pattern you'll ever need.

I still prefer mittens and thick, fuzzy yarn, but I can't help but smile when I see those stripes.

Gluten-free Millet Falafel

2010-02-22T16:23:00.001-05:00

Now that I'm gluten-free and living in almost-northern Maine, if I'm hankering for falafel I have to make it myself. My go-to recipe used to be Baked Falafel from the The Whole Foods Market Cookbook (you can see a slightly modified version of it here). A mix of chickpeas, bulgur wheat, breadcrumbs, and seasoning, it was a lighter variation on those traditional dense, fried patties. A few weeks ago I was playing around with millet, and realized it could easily stand in for bulgar wheat in this recipe; cooked with three parts water to one part grain, millet bulks up and gets sticky.

Baked falafel isn't as crispy as fried falafel, and it lacks that dirty street cart je ne sais quoi, but it's a whole lot healthier and easier to prepare. I hate frying at home— oil splatters all over my countertops, it stinks up the kitchen, and it forces me to acknowledge how much hot fat I'm about to eat. If you decide to fry this dough instead of baking it, leave a comment and let us know how it works.

Note: falafel loves—no, needs tahini sauce. Mine is a simple mix of tahini, water, and fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

Baked Millet Falafel

1 cup water
⅓ cup millet
1½ teaspoons cups cooked chickpeas
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp crushed red chili flakes
1½ teaspoons cumin
1½ teaspoons coriander
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup gluten-free breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chickpea flour
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
olive oil (to coat baking sheet)

Preheat oven to 400°F and lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil.

Boil the water and add millet. Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook 25-30 minutes, until water is absorbed.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine cooked millet, chickpeas, onion, garlic, red chili flakes, cumin, coriander, lemon juice, olive oil, breadcrumbs, chickpea flour, and parsley, and pulse until just mixed.

Form heaping tablespoons of dough into balls and use a spatula to gently press them into the oiled cookie sheet. Spray or brush the falafel with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes, until underside of falafel are lightly browned. Carefully flip the falafel and cook another 10 minutes.

Makes 16. *Make your own breadcrumbs by drying a few pieces of bread on a rack overnight (or in the microwave, between 2 paper towels—30 to 60 seconds ought to do it). Break the dried bread into chunks and process into crumbs in a blender or food processor. This is a great way to make use of disappointing gluten-free loaves!

Photos of Fiber

2010-02-20T19:50:00.001-05:00

Scenes from today's Fiber Arts Exhibition at the Bangor Public Library:

Michele Goldman, Fiberphilia

Pine Tree Quilters Guild, Inc.

rug hooking, artist unknown

felted sculptures by Bob Nichols, Artifelt Maine

masks by Susan Barrett Merrill

bobbin lace by Gloria Buntrock

Nothing to say but wow, Maine. Wow.

New York Mitten Part 2: The Healthy Stuff

2010-02-18T15:37:00.001-05:00

I've already told you about the great desserts I ate in New York City. Seriously, I'll bet half my calories last weekend came from coconut oil and agave. It's okay, though, because I walked a lot, and I drank some vegetable juice.

Here's the Flu and Cold Fighter from Candle Cafe—ginger, orange, grapefruit, carrot, and lemon. Totally zingy, great for the sinuses. I'm going to start making this one at home.

We visited Candle Cafe on the upper east side at lunchtime, and a half hour after opening, they were already packed. The restaurant is entirely vegan, and gluten-free items are listed on a separate menu. For the first time in a long time, I was overwhelmed by my choices. I ordered a Good Food Plate, a combination of four sides paired with two dressings or sauces for 17 dollars.

I must have been feeling southern, because I went with black eyed peas, sautéed daily greens (kale and chard), coleslaw, and the garlic-shallot-potato mash, with tahini sauce and country gravy. The beans and greens were unseasoned—wholesome but a little boring—but the coleslaw was light and crunchy, and the mashed potatoes were incredibly creamy and smooth with rich golden garlic flavor. With Candle Cafe's selection of sides and sauces, I could order a dozen more variations on the Good Food Plate without getting bored.

Rod's meal was a celebration of gluten (perhaps he's feeling deprived?): the Grilled Seitan Burger.

It came with house-made fries, lettuce, sprouts, onion, coleslaw and pickles, and Rod added caramelized onions. I can't vouch for it myself, but it looked good!

I liked the bright, airy, laid-back atmosphere of Candle Cafe, but we also visited its dark, swanky cousin, Candle 79. The restaurant was crowded on Saturday night, and even though we had a reservation, we ended up standing at the end of a packed bar for twenty minutes. I felt conspicuous among the upscale patrons in tight black outfits and hard, pointy shoes. My "nice" outfit consisted of khakis, an L.L.Bean sweater, and my felted clogs. (They are wide, flat, and red, with embroidered flowers. In Maine, you can wear shoes like this in public. In fact, they are a huge hit with kindergarteners, who like to rub them during story time.)

After we were seated, in an upstairs nook too dark for photos, I started with some Green Goddess juice: mixed greens, apple, lemon and ginger. Green juice has always frightened me, but I decided to finally give it a go. And you know what? I liked it. It tasted like salad. It helped that the room was so dark I couldn't see.

I got a kick out of the waitress describing the evening's special beer, Maine's own Allagash Curieux. Apparently our beer, if not our footwear, is classy enough for New York. God I miss that stuff.

We shared the Vegetable Nori Rolls, which came with pickled ginger, avocado wasabi, chipotle aioli, and tamari-ginger sauce. The dish was labelled gluten-free, but I was still nervous about the tamari and any adobo sauce that might have slipped in with the chipotles. Eating outside my own kitchen is a tricky business.

For my entrée, I ordered Sake-Miso-Ginger Glazed Tofu, a thick stew made with Asian vegetables, maitake mushrooms, scallions, and toasted peanuts, and served with coconut black rice in a banana leaf pocket. The dish was creamy, lemony, and mild. Tofu and edamame made it quite hearty. Rod ordered the special, a breaded seitan cutlet with mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and julienned root vegetables—a very wintery dish.

Dessert (no surprise) was my favorite part of the meal. We shared the Live Orange Cream Parfait: crunchy nut granola, orange cashew cream, date-sweetened cherry ice cream, and a dried pineapple ring, served in a martini glass. We were both fascinated by the pineapple ring—it was as thin and crisp as a potato chip—and are now pining for a dehydrator.

Candle 79 and Candle Cafe are both completely vegan. Their menus are similar. Even if you're gluten-free, there's plenty to choose from. Candle 79 is more expensive and a bit too fashionable
(pretentious?) for my taste; if you like playing dress-up, you may prefer it. The food was delicious and beautifully presented at both restaurants. Four chickpeas.

There are so many restaurants in New York City that I still want to try (see The Urban Housewife's extensive NYC Travel Guide for tons of pictures and reviews). I need to plan these visits annually!

New York Mitten

2010-02-17T15:59:00.001-05:00

We spent Valentine's Day in New York City, visiting old haunts and making pilgrimages to vegan dining institutions. We rarely venture south of Portland these days, but spending a holiday weekend immersed in bustling consumerism is just the thing to break up the long, quiet winter. Plus, in New York you can buy gluten-free vegan donuts—that alone is worth a 7-hour drive.

A few observations before we get to the food:

• I'd forgotten how late in the day everything begins in New York. Early to bed, early to rise is not a good plan if you want to make the most of your time in the city. Late Saturday morning I made a mostly fruitless journey to the East Village to find only Babycakes open. You can't shop at Mooshoes until 11:30 or eat vegan ice cream at Lula's until 3 in the afternoon. I thought I'd kill time in some restaurant supply stores on Bowery, but no luck there, either (I ended up in Starbucks). At ten-thirty in the morning I was alone, except for delivery men ratting hand trucks over the sidewalks and art school kids still in their pajamas, escorting jacket-wearing terriers to the curb. Walking downtown in my bright green coat, red clogs, and $30 jeans, with my hair unstyled and nothing pierced but my earlobes, I felt old, square, and white. Leaving Maine reminds me that I am just a grandma trapped in a young person's body.

• We went back to Rod's old building, to see if his crazy downstairs neighbor was still alive and living there. I thought for sure she would have been dragged away by social services—she used to bang her broom on the ceiling at 2 in the morning and demand we stop partying, when we had been fast asleep for hours and the only blaring music was in her head. She also felt compelled to tape frantic and threatening notes to the door. Her name is still listed by the buzzers, but that doesn't tell us anything because so is LAKE, R., and he hasn't lived there since 2005.

• New Yorkers: I admire your efficiency, but when you bump into someone you are supposed to say "excuse me," even if you weren't at fault. This doesn't even require you stop walking. Seriously, you would all be happier if you treated each other like humans.

• Stretch pants are apparently back. Nine out of ten women (of all shapes and sizes!) walking around Manhattan last weekend were sporting the following uniform: black quilted coat, black spandex pants, and puffy winter boots (preferably UGGs). I predict this trend will fizzle out before it reaches Bangor (probably somewhere around Scarborough). It's too cold for skin-tight pants, and most of us have more padding than we'd care to flaunt. You don't even see stretch pants at the Bangor Y.

As I mentioned, my first stop on Saturday morning was Babycakes vegan bakery. Reviews online are mixed (people tend to either love them or hate them), but the prospect of gluten-free baked goods was too much to resist.

I ordered cupcakes in chocolate and vanilla, agave and chocolate chip brownies, and two donuts, one lemon-coconut and one cinnamon-sugar. About half the items in the bakery case were gluten-free (the rest are wheat-free, made with spelt). It's a rare thrill to be able to have so many choices, and I would have loved more time to consider my order. Unfortunately, even though I was the only customer in the shop, the girls behind the counter seemed put out by my deliberation. After forking over almost $20 (Babycakes is not cheap!), I strolled past shuttered storefronts and piles of garbage bags, shamelessly enjoying my incredible cinnamon-sugar donut. It was warm, buttery, and moist, with a spongy crumb and a crunchy coating of large sugar crystals. That donuts of this caliber are possible without eggs, gluten, or refined sweeteners gives me hope.

After lunch I tried the cupcakes. The famous whipped coconut oil frosting was rich and subtly sweet, like room temperature ice cream—probably the best I've ever eaten in my frosting-loving life. The cake itself was dry and dense; the chocolate was dark and delicious, but the beany flavor of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose flour shone through in the lemony vanilla. I had the bite-sized brownies for breakfast (shut up, I was on vacation), and found the chocolate chip brownie gooier and sweeter than the agave.

I made one more visit to Babycakes, hoping to stock up on cinnamon sugar donuts for the ride home, but found chocolate chip cookie sandwiches instead. The crunchy, slightly salty gluten-free cookies were unremarkable, but they held a generous dollop of that addictive frosting. From this recipe, it would take only a modest leap to create a vegan version of mankind's most deliciously evil invention, the Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie. For $5, I could probably do as well in my own kitchen, but Babycakes' cookie sandwich is better by leaps and bounds than anything I can buy in Maine.

Babycakes: four chickpeas

My lust for dessert fully awakened, I visited Lula's Sweet Apothecary, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor that is gluten-free friendly and entirely vegan. In other words, it's an earthly version of this agnostic's secret hope for Heaven.

Even though they were busy on Valentine's night, the staff were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable, offering samples and suggestions. I ordered a two-scoop sundae with coffee and coconut fudge ice cream, caramel and hot fudge, walnuts, whipped coconut cream, and a freaky red maraschino cherry.

I'm about to destroy this thing.

Lula's was the highlight of the weekend. The shop is comfortable and fun—behind the cash register, toppings are stored in the tiny square drawers of an antique pharmacy cabinet—and it was such a joy to revisit a favorite childhood treat without worrying about getting sick or consuming hidden dairy. The ice cream was perfectly rich, creamy, and soft; Rod couldn't believe his scoop of peanut toffee crunch was made from cashews instead of cow's milk.

This photo of the Lula's menu may be a little clichéd (I've seen it on several blogs), but it gives you an idea of their selection. Starred flavors are gluten-free. If I'd had a way to get them home, I would have bought several pints to go.

Lula's Sweet Apothecary: four enthusiastic chickpeas

Dessert wasn't all we ate—we saved room for smoothies and vegetables, too—but since this post is getting long, I'll tell you about our meals at Candle 79 and Candle Cafe next time.

Mood Candy

2010-02-12T09:51:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I posted heart-shaped sugar cookie sandwiches. Cute as they were, they were not my real Valentine's Day dessert. I've been working on a recipe for my real romance food for weeks—and today I was supposed to have a recipe for chocolate-dipped candied orange slices to share with you.

Oranges are in season now (no, not in Maine, silly), so I've been buying 8 pound bags for $5.99. For Valentine's Day, I wanted to create an elegant grown-up candy with a bite. I love dark, bitter chocolate paired with sour citrus.

Unfortunately, candying whole orange slices is not as easy as the food bloggers would have you believe: in the last three weeks, I've made soggy, sticky orange slices, rock-hard orange slices, and disintegrated orange slices. You must blanch the slices to soften the peel (and remove pesticides if your oranges aren't organic), but the softer orange flesh can't handle such rough treatment. This recipe, which involves soaking sliced oranges in a saturated sugar solution, seems to yield good results, but you and I would have had to start in January in order to have candied orange slices ready for Valentime.

In the end I gave up on candying whole orange slices and did only the peels. I blanched strips of peel twice, stewed them in simple syrup for an hour, and left them out to cool and stiffen overnight (there's a complete tutorial at Smitten Kitchen, so I won't repeat it here). Then I coated them in dark chocolate.

These candied orange peels are a perfect balance of sweet, bitter, and sour, smooth with a surprising crunch of crystalized sugar. They are not the sort of cutesy pastel candies you taped to your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles valentines in fifth grade; you could totally seduce somebody with these.

Whether you're planning to get romantic this weekend, or watch the Olympics in your pajamas with your cat, treat yourself to something yummy and out of the ordinary.

I <3 You, Gluten-free Sugar Cookies

2010-02-11T12:35:00.001-05:00

I can't tell you how happy I am to be using cookie cutters again. I thought rollable, sliceable sugar cookie dough would be impossible without gluten and eggs, but happily, I was wrong. To make these chocolate-filled sandwich cookies, I followed the Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar recipe for Roll-and-Cut Sugar Cookies, replacing 2⅓ cups all-purpose flour and 2 tablespoons cornstarch with:

⅔ cup almond meal
⅔ cup white rice flour
⅔ cup tapioca flour/starch
⅔ cup millet flour
½ teaspoon xanthan gum

I'm beginning to get the hang of gluten-free flour science. I've learned you need a little protein and a little starch, and you have to consider the desired texture and flavor of the finished product.

The December/January issue of Living Without (helpful magazine, terrible name) features an exhaustive guide to gluten-free flours. For every type of flour, it provides information about protein and fiber content, texture, color, flavor, and recommended proportions for mixing—exactly what I needed to begin adapting recipes with confidence, instead crossed fingers. I highly recommend it; I've tucked a copy in the front of my recipe binder.

You can see these cookies are a little flaky, but a little more xanthan would probably take care of that. I don't mind the almond meal bumps, but if you do, try a finely ground almond flour instead.

This dough behaved and tasted exactly like traditional sugar cookies. Thicker cookies were soft and buttery in the middle and held their shape best; thinner cookies spread a bit in the oven and were crispy.

Since there are so many types of gluten-free flour to work with, the combinations are almost infinite. There's bound to be more than one mix that will yield successful sugar cookies, and different bakers will have different preferences regarding flavor, texture, and appearance. I'm not sure I've found my ultimate gluten-free sugar cookie recipe, but I'm well on my way. It's a good thing, because I wouldn't want my concentric heart-shaped cookie cutters going to waste.

Millet Cakes at Maine Food & Lifestyle

2010-02-09T06:14:00.001-05:00

Birds love it, and it makes excellent stuffing for juggling beanbags. It tastes like couscous and it's gluten-free. Millet is cool, but after you've filled your hacky sack and made pilaf, what can you do with it?

Head on over to Maine Food & Lifestyle for my recipe for White Bean and Mushroom Millet Cakes.

Brown Sugar Jalapeño Barbeque Sauce

2010-02-04T14:22:00.001-05:00

I've tuned out football since the Patriots' pathetic season ended during the first round of playoffs, but come Superbowl Sunday, I'll be right back on the couch, knitting in hand, routing against the Colts. So go Saints (I guess).

The Superbowl meal must be manly: salty, spicy, and crunchy, and full of starch and fat. Don't even coming near the tv room with your strawberry yogurt or your cleansing green juice. You will be tackled! (Or poked with a knitting needle.)

I'm planning a barbecue-themed meal: I'll finally try those infamous Crash Hot Potatoes (with so much oil and salt, how could they not be terrific?), and I'll sauté garlic and kale. For the main dish, I'm going to cube and fry some extra-firm tofu, then simmer it a finger-licking, pan-scraping, hot, sweet, and tangy barbecue sauce.

My stove is old; don't judge.

This recipe comes from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook; I've made it vegan by replacing honey with brown sugar. The list of ingredients is a little long, but the method couldn't be simpler. Give it a try; it's better than anything you'll find in a bottle.

Brown Sugar Jalapeño Barbeque Sauce
(adapted from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook)

1 cup ketchup (without corn syrup if possible)
1 cup + 3 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup minced jalapeño pepper (canned is easiest here)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon curry powder
1½ teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon hot sauce (I use Frank's RedHot)
1 teaspoon soy sauce (gluten-free, if necessary)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon canla oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Stir together all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a low simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Sauce will thicken and turn a deep red-brown. Makes 2 cups.

Gluten-free Review: Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

2010-02-01T17:48:00.001-05:00

I'm late in reviewing this book, which was published in November, because I almost decided not to buy it. Last fall I was banging my head against the wall trying to take the gluten out of vegan recipes and the eggs out of gluten-free recipes, and the last thing I needed was another collection of creative recipes and gorgeous photos to remind me of everything I couldn't eat. Thankfully, Isa and Terry remembered the gluten-free folk; as vegans, they understand how hard it is to eye a batch of warm, gooey cookies and know they are off-limits. In the first section of the book, Cookie Science, they provide ratios for an all-purpose Gluten Frida Mix, along with the promise that every single recipe in the book can be prepared gluten-free.

Could this be true? I threw together a gallon of Gluten Frida and began baking.

The book's one hundred recipes are divided into five categories: Drop Cookies, Wholesome Cookies, Bar Cookies, Fancy Cookies, and Sliced and Rolled cookies. I'm a drop cookie gal through-and-through (why make cookies if you can't enjoy the dough?), so I started with the Cherry Almond Cookies. Almonds, tangy dried cherries, and almond extract made a delicious and addicting combination, but the cookies were flat and crumbled easily. I added 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum to a second batch and got puffier cookies that stayed soft and cohesive for several days.

The Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (made with gluten-free oats) had similar texture issues: by the second day they had fallen apart and formed an oatmeal-raisin loaf. Not very pretty, and not very portable, but still delicious: I couldn't keep my fingers away from that cinnamon and nutmeg-spiced loaf. Without gluten, this recipe also benefitted from a teaspoon a xanthan gum.

I moved on to the wholesome Peanut Butter Agave Cookies.

They were soft and chewy, and thanks to the agave and brown rice syrup, didn't need any additional binders. They weren't as sweet as traditional peanut butter cookies, and it was nearly impossible to form a criss-cross pattern in the wet dough, but if you like the flavor of agave nectar, you might prefer these to the traditional granulated sugar version.

Next: gooey, caramely pecan filling on a shortbread crust? Good lord, yes.

For these Caramel Pecan Bars, I used for coconut flour instead of almond in my gluten-free mix, and it made the shortbread dough very dry. I needed half a cup of water to form it into crumbs. The shortbread needed a few extra minutes to begin browning, but it held together well and sliced cleanly, without any xanthan or guar gum. The recipe calls for lining a baking dish with tin foil, but since some of my (oiled) tin foil stuck to the sticky caramel, I might try parchment or wax paper next time. These pecan bars are almost as good as my favorite maple syrup-laced pecan pie recipe, and much less expensive. I will make them often.

The book's final recipe is for Cookie Dough Scoops, which are just spoonfuls of straight-up chocolate chip cookie dough (bitter-tasting baking soda is omitted). Gluten-free, with rice and almond flour, this dough was a little grainy. When I'm craving cookie dough, I prefer the near-instant gratification of the Cherrybrook Kitchen mix.

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar is good enough replace my tattered old Mrs. Fields as go-to cookie book. The variety of recipes is exhaustive, from well-known classics (Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies) to crazy new inventions (Tahini Lime Cookies and Spiced Sweet Potato Blondies). That said, if you're baking any of the recipes gluten-free, do a trial run before serving them to other people; you may need additional liquid or a binding agent. The Gluten Frida mix is fine for most cookies in this book, but the appearance and texture of ground flax seeds would alter the spirit of delicate cookies like shortbread or Macadamia Lace Cookies.

Because they don't need to rise much, cookies are generous to those of us new to gluten-free baking. I can't wait to try more of Isa and Terry's recipes and experiment with flour. I'm so glad I decided to give this book a shot!

Serious Hot Chocolate for Hard-working Grown Ups

2010-01-28T15:44:00.001-05:00

The promise of hot chocolate makes chores like shoveling the driveway and knocking icicles off the roof feel almost worth it. Your fingers are cold, your back is sore, and you deserve a treat. You can simply veganize the recipe on the side of the cocoa canister, but your hot chocolate will be thin and sickly sweet.

You need a thick, dark, sinister mug of Aztec liquid chocolate.

For hot drinks, I like hemp milk: it's rich like soy milk, but its flavor is understated. I mix it with coconut milk and swap real chocolate for cocoa powder to create a tongue-coating, eye-watering, all-consuming chocolate drink. Since the chocolate and hemp milk are already sweetened, no additional sugar is necessary. You'll want a spoon to scoop the last few drops from the bottom of your mug.

Grown Up Hot Chocolate

2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate (bittersweet or unsweetened if you are a badass)
2/3 cup hemp milk
1/3 coconut milk

Warm all ingredients over medium heat, whisking frequently until chocolate is melted and liquid is steaming. Stop short of boiling. Makes 1 large or 2 small servings.

For real excitement, try serving this hot chocolate with a slice of orange or candied ginger. Or for nostalgia, plop in a few dense vanilla Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows (square marshmallows feel so rustic and artisan).

Let the kids have their Swiss Miss and their dehydrated marshmallow pebbles; you should celebrate the end of another long, chilly day with a steaming cup of real chocolate.

Easier than it Tastes: Italian Roasted Eggplant Stew

2010-01-20T15:19:00.001-05:00

This easy weeknight dish is based on one of my favorite recipes in Veganomicon, Tomato and Roasted Eggplant Stew with Chickpeas, which you can find here. Roasting eggplant, garlic, and red peppers gives that stew a delicious sweet and smoky flavor, but takes a fair amount of time, planning, and counter space.

Sometimes I need to make dinner after a long day of herding children, driving to meetings, and shoveling. By six o'clock, I don't want to follow directions anymore. I want to throw things into a bowl or pot, squish them between my fingers, and see what comes out. On nights like this, I can't go wrong with chickpeas, tomatoes, and eggplant. Veganomicon is in the back of my mind as I cook, but over time I've greatly simplified this stew and taken the seasoning in an Italian direction. The measurements I've provided are only a starting point; I prefer to sprinkle, stir, taste, and repeat until I've reached the perfect balance of sweet and salty.

Salting the eggplant removes its bitterness and makes it tender. If you're into planning ahead, you can salt and roast the eggplant the day before you make the stew. Serve this with polenta—it'll feel so fancy for a Wednesday.

Italian Roasted Eggplant Stew
adapted from Veganomicon

1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound)
kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
¼ cup white wine
28-oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Trim the stem off the eggplant. Slice the eggplant in half lenthwise, then slice into ½-thick half circles. Place slices in a mesh strainer and rub with kosher salt. Place strainer over a bowl and let sit for 20 minutes.

Heat oven to 400F. Rinse eggplant slices in cool water and pat dry. Toss lightly with olive oil and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes, until edges begin to brown, then flip slices. Roast another 10-15 minutes, until slices are lightly browned, but not dried out. Remove eggplant from oven and set aside.

Warm olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté garlic 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Add wine and simmer 1 minute. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, roasted eggplant, rosemary, thyme, and oregano.

Simmer, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes, until liquid is reduced by half. Taste and adjust seasoning. Add salt and pepper if desired.

Serves 4. Best served over polenta.

Great Finds in my Moving Boxes

2010-01-19T16:25:00.001-05:00

Last winter, the recession had fashion bloggers and morning show correspondents discussing how to look great and save money by shopping in your own closet. While I couldn't care less about fashion (I will remove my hoodie if I must, for very fancy occasions), I enjoy anything that helps me put off a trip to the mall.

Since moving last August, we've been slow to unpack, since every room in the house needs work. We're still opening boxes, finding places for our belongings, and culling broken and unwanted objects.

A few weeks ago, I tired of alternating the same two sweaters on school days, and of climbing over a rubbermaid bin to get into the upstairs bathroom. In the bin, with my work clothes, old shoes, and painting gear, was this Red Sox sweatshirt. I hadn't been looking for it and didn't remember owning it, but now, thanks to its super-thick fabric and snug wrists, it's in heavy rotation.

Then I found a quilt and plaid lap blanket that I bought in college. Good as new.

This weekend I decided to go through old cds. I opened a beat-up box and uncovered some 90s AWESOME, just what I need to turn folding laundry into a dance party.

I'm so glad I never bought any of these albums on iTunes.

If you're snowed in or stir crazy this winter, go shopping in a closet, attic, or stack of moving boxes. Find something old, fun, and forgotten; it's like getting a present from your (younger) self.

Review: The Gluten-free Vegan

2010-01-14T16:06:00.001-05:00

The Gluten-Free Vegan: 150 Delicious Gluten-Free, Animal-Free Recipes by cooking instructor and consultant Susan O'Brien offers a broad collection of recipes, from beverages to main dishes to dessert. Many of the recipes are basic, and will be helpful to gluten-free cooks looking to expand beyond the meat and potatoes paradigm, but obvious recipes for vegan staples like hummus, roasted vegetables, and garden salad will hold little interest for moderately experienced cooks.

The book's layout is straightforward and modest: one recipe per page, no photographs. Brief introductory text accompanies each recipe; it is occasionally helpful, but mostly inane ("My friends/son/husband really liked this..."). The intro to Baking Powder Biscuits does not inspire confidence: "These are not easy to make without gluten. I have done my best..."

Most of O'Brien's recipes emphasize whole ingredients and natural sweeteners. The first dish I tried, Betcha By Golly Bean Salad (why this title?), is a healthy, orange-juice sweetened adaptation of the traditional three-bean salad. Looking over the recipe, which calls for canned beans, cilantro, walnuts, red bell pepper, and only a touch of seasoning, I hoped it would magically be more than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, tin can was the dominant flavor. I added more orange juice and more cumin, as well as olive oil, cider vinegar, coriander, salt, and pepper. Canned beans can't stand on their own like that.

Though I won't follow this recipe again, I probably will use orange juice instead of sugar and include walnuts in future three-bean salads.

I found the Curried Coconut and Squash Stew similarly bland. Butternut squash, red bell pepper, coconut milk, and soy milk are naturally sweet; simmered together, without assertive rich or spicy seasoning, they were cloying. I needed cumin, Sriracha, and lots of lime juice to enjoy this curry. Tofu had no business here—it contributed nothing to the flavor, and was just another soft tan thing thing in a stew full of boiled squash. Black beans would have been a better choice.

I can find recipes for lentil soup and sautéed greens in any vegetarian cookbook; what I really need to learn about is gluten-free baking. Many of O'Brien's recipes call for Ener-G Egg Replacer, a pre-mixed combination of starches and leavening agents that seems a little lazy.

After my last round of baking, I didn't expect the Carrot Cake to be edible. (I'm learning it's best not to get your hopes up when baking without gluten.) Boy, was I surprised.

It may be the best carrot cake I've ever eaten. It's light, moist, and not too sweet, with shredded carrots, chopped walnuts, coconut, and pineapple in every bite. It rose beautifully, and though it's made with quinoa flour and xanthan gum, there's not a hint of weirdness. Our resident carrot cake fiend approves. I chose the optional brown sugar over agave nectar (it's cheaper and I prefer the flavor), and since I don't have a 9x11 pan, I baked ⅔ of the batter in a square pan and made the rest into cupcakes. If you made only cupcakes with this recipe, you would probably get 18; mine were cooked through after about 25 minutes.

O'Brien suggests frosting this cake with her Cashew Crème Frosting, a purée of coconut milk, dates, and raw cashews that thickens after a few hours in the fridge. I would have preferred a lemon or coconut buttercream. This spread, which would be delicious with sliced apples, made the cake taste like health food.

Encouraged, I tried the brownies. They were rose quite a bit in the oven (2 teaspoons of baking powder!), and were gooey in a lovely, chocolatey way. I don't enjoy the chocolate-banana combination, so I'd like to bake these again with a different puréed fruit, or even silken tofu, as a binder.

The Gluten-Free Vegan may have some winning recipes (I look forward to trying the pumpkin scones), but only a few shed light on gluten-free technique. Beyond a couple of cookie recipes, the rest of the desserts are coconut milk puddings, fruit crisps, and other vegan dishes that are easily prepared without gluten or are gluten-free to begin with. The majority of the book is dedicated to unimaginative savory dishes; if you're new to vegan cooking, these quick and easy recipes may help you expand your repertoire. If you're a long-time vegan looking to learn about gluten-free baking, get this book from the library, photocopy the carrot cake recipe, and save fifteen dollars.

C is for...

2010-01-11T10:37:00.001-05:00

1. Celiac
2. Cookie
3. Champion

Last week's successful batch of gluten-free chocolate chip cookies contained flax, xanthan gum, and peanut butter. Convinced at least one of these binders was unnecessary, I spent the weekend experimenting.

Without flax, the cookies were flat and crispy. Without xanthan gum, the dough melted into a sheet. Without peanut butter, the dough spread too much and cooked unevenly.

Left and top: Gnarly cookies with flax and xanthan gum
Right: Plump and chewy cookie with flax, xanthan gum, and peanut butter

So in the final recipe, I kept all three binding ingredients. If I were more analytical and better at math, I could build recipes based on chemistry rather than trial and error and dumb luck. I'd probably waste less food that way.

I posted my recipe at Maine Food & Lifestyle, but I'll include it here, too. In a few months, when I've recovered my appetite for cookies, I'd like to work out a recipe that doesn't rely on peanut butter (so many people are allergic). But for now, this recipe is reliable and delicious. Give it a try—I'd love to hear how it works for you!

Gluten-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup almond flour (or finely ground almond meal)
1 tablespoon ground flax
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup (1 stick) nonhydrogenated margarine (such as Earth Balance)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup rice or other nondairy milk
1 cup smooth peanut butter (natural and unsalted)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Combine flours, flax, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum in medium bowl. Beat margarine, sugars, vanilla extract, rice milk, and peanut butter in large bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to wire cooling racks.

Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies.

Cookie Quest

2010-01-08T17:10:00.001-05:00

As I begin exploring the art of baking without gluten, I'm amazed by the range of flavors and properties gluten-free flours present. In traditional bread and pastry recipes, all-purpose flour is usually just a backdrop, but choosing the right balance of gluten-free flours requires research into density, texture, flavor, protein, and fiber content. Good luck helps, too.

Take something basic, like drop cookies. With normal all-purpose flour, there are only three possible outcomes: ooey-gooey, cakey, and somewhere in between. In each case it's not the behavior but the amount of the flour that determines the outcome. Substituting combinations of bean, nut, and gluten-free grain flours can lead to dozens of results, most of them inedible.

I have a lot to learn, so I turned to a confection that's practically fool-proof in its traditional form. Chocolate chip cookies, that good-old American classic, are one of the first items most children and novice bakers master. Recipes abound, on the backs of chocolate chip bags and in the pages of all but the snobbiest cookbooks. Making them vegan is no problem, but what about vegan and gluten-free?

Searching for wisdom in other people's recipes, I've made and eaten several dozen cookies over the last two weeks.

First, there were the Flying Apron chocolate chip cookies, which I discussed at length in my cookbook review. Made with brown rice and chickpea flour, they were a bit too light, dry, and crumbly.

Next I tried a recipe posted by Lori Jablons, another food blogger who recently went gluten-free. Lori's recipe uses coconut flour, almond meal (gluten is a protein, so if you're not replacing it with eggs, nut flour seems a good choice), and an all-purpose mixture of rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch.

I liked these cookies more. They were dense and gooey, with a lovely caramelized brown sugar flavor. The flecks of almond detectable throughout (Bob's Red Mill Almond Meal isn't as finely ground as other brands), benefitted the cookies' flavor and texture.

My third batch came from a box. I wrote a while ago about Cherrybrook Kitchen's Sugar Cookie Mix, which works like a charm but makes me feel like a cheater. The ingredients in the chocolate chip cookie mix are very similar: a mix of white and brown rice flour, lots of sugar, xanthan gum, and some starch.

Like the sugar cookies, the just-add-water-and-margarine chocolate chip cookies are puffy, quite sweet, and a little grainy. Of the three batches, the mix made the tastiest (and quickest) cookie dough; I saved a bit for mixing into ice cream.

After two weeks of eating cookies and studying the effects of gluten-free flour combinations, I was ready to create a recipe of my own. I took the rice flour and starch from Cherrybrook Kitchen's mix, the almond flour and brown sugar from Lori's recipe, and modeled the rest of my ingredients on the classic Toll House recipe.

Photogenic and completely delicious! They're crispy on the outside, soft and melty on the inside, and they hold up well for days. The recipe needs a little tidying up before I can share it; I threw every binding agent I could think of into those cookies, and I'm sure some of them are redundant. Peanut butter made a lovely addition to the second batch.

I can't believe it, but I'm beginning to get tired of chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is almost there, though, so I'll make another batch this weekend and get it right.

How I suffer for my art.

R.I.P. Yellow Apron, 2005-2010

2010-01-06T17:24:00.001-05:00

The old yellow apron was laid to rest this morning. After more than four years of admirable service, the apron could no longer perform its duties due to a malfunctioning neck strap.

Farewell, friend. You were a good apron. I shall remember fondly your wide pockets, your absorbent fabric, your hot sauce stains. The evenings I put you on and discovered a kleenex, or an animal cracker, leftover from some previous night's adventures.

You will be replaced, but not forgotten.

Review: Flying Apron's Gluten-free & Vegan Baking Book

2010-01-04T11:40:00.001-05:00

I made out like a gluten-free bandit this Christmas. In addition to my tortilla equipment, I received two gluten-free vegan cookbooks. Pulled in by the engaging layout and cozy full-page photos, I dove first into the Flying Apron's Gluten-free & Vegan Baking Book.

The Flying Apron Bakery in Seattle is entirely gluten-free, mostly vegan (some baked goods contain honey), and mostly soy-free. The recipes emphasize whole, organic grains, sweeteners, and oils. This is not a budget cookbook—the chocolate cake, for instance, calls for 2 cups of maple syrup—but if you're health-conscious, gluten-free, and vegan, you deserve a treat once in a while.

Figuring they were a good starting point for comparison, I began with Flying Apron's Chocolate Chip Cookies, made with 2 parts brown rice flour and one part chickpea flour. "Chickpea flour in cookies?" I thought. "Won't that make them chocolate chip samosas?" No guar or xanthan gum, either, so when I finished mixing the runny, beany dough, I feared I'd have a flat, savory mess.

To my surprise, they baked up light, fluffy, and sweet. This isn't my favorite chocolate chip cookie—I prefer them dense and gooey, and these are more like muffin tops—but based on this recipe, I had high hopes for the rest of the book.

Next I tried the Corn Berry Muffins, made with corn flour, corn meal, and brown rice flour. The batter was extremely thin: the recipe calls for more than a cup of water in addition to a half cup of oil. After baking, the muffins were soggy, greasy, and crumbly. Even after extra time in the oven, the bottoms never cooked through. I ate the fruit off the tops of a few muffins and threw the rest away. I can't help but wonder if this recipe would work with less water and oil.

The ultimate test for a gluten-free cookbook is yeasted bread. I started with the Flying Apron Bakery House Bread, their standard toast and sandwich loaf. Unlike traditional yeasted breads, Flying Apron's require no kneading. Instead, the freshly-mixed dough is immediately placed in a warmed oven, so the bread bakes as the yeast release gases.

When my finished loaf was a brick, I suspected my yeast was too old, but wasting expensive gluten-free flour and maple syrup for any reason makes me cranky.

I still needed something to dip in my soup, so I tried the Quinoa Bread, which is leavened with baking soda instead of yeast. The wet dough was like muffin batter; there was no possibility of kneading or shaping. I globbed it onto my pizza stone and baked it for the proscribed time, and when I removed the loaf from the oven...

...brick #2.

What gives? The breads pictured in the cookbook look so airy and normal. Obviously Flying Apron's bakers have success using these recipes—if they served the kind of bread I wound up with, they'd have no customers. So what's the difference?

Are there errors in the recipes? Were the recipes tested by amateurs in home kitchens, or only in a commercial bakery? Is gluten-free baking so finicky that differences between brands of chickpea flour or measuring technique can spoil a whole cookbook?

After my baking disappointments, I moved on to the Flying Apron's selection of simple, portable main dishes, soups, and salads. First I tried the Dinosaur Kale, Artichoke, and Garbanzo Bean Salad. With tomatoes and a salty lemon vinaigrette, this salad is colorful and tangy, and so simple you won't need to look at the recipe after you've made it once. Kale holds up well in dressing; this salad was still firm and crunchy three days out.

On a kale kick, I went next to the Asian Kale, with ginger, sesame, and pumpkin seeds.

Fresh, crunchy, mild, and wonderfully easy. With some cashews or a side of broiled tofu, it makes a healthy and delicious lunch. Why are no bakery-cafes in central Maine serving this much kale?

I wanted to make the Chinese Green Beans and serve them for dinner with broiled tofu and rice, but the green beans at the grocery store were looking sad (it is January, after all) so I substituted sugar snap peas, with which I am having a minor love affair. Shallots, fried gently in sesame oil, soaked up the maple-sweetened ginger vinaigrette. With a touch of Sriracha, this dish was a perfect balance of hot, sweet, rich, and fresh. The leftovers were welcome in my lunchbox.

Finally, I made Flying Apron's Lentil Dahl, which confused me by being made of split peas, not lentils. It came together in under an hour (most of it inactive) and made six large servings. Toasting cumin seeds and other seasonings produced a rich, warming flavor. Tomatoes and diced sweet potato gave each spoonful texture and variety. This soup is perfect for a busy weeknight or a snowy weekend.

The bottom line: although this is primarily a baking book, I had the most success with Flying Apron's non-baked savory lunch items. I had mixed results with pastries, and my expensive and inedible attempts at bread left me annoyed and disheartened.

Many recipes in this book call for expensive and hard-to-find ingredients, but if you're both vegan and gluten-free, it might be worth tracking down specific brands of fruit juice concentrate in your quest for a decent muffin. I'll continue to explore the soup and salad sections of the cookbook for lunch ideas and try other cookies and breakfast pastries, but I don't plan to give the breads another chance. The layout and photography in this book are beautiful, but definitely do a trial run of any baked goods you plan to serve to guests.

Toasty Toes

2009-12-31T11:25:00.001-05:00

We'll be snowed in this weekend, riding out a historically significant storm, but my feet will be nice and warm in these felted slippers. They're called pichots (pea-shoos), and according to Michele at Fiberphilia, they were traditionally knitted by the matriachs of French Catholic families in New Brunswick and Aroostook County. I couldn't find any mention of their cultural roots online, (though googling turned up numerous opportunities to "check out this pic—HOT!") but it's easy to imagine northern mémères keeping toes warm with these quick, easy felted slippers.

The construction is basic: knit several inches on straight needles, for what will become the heel and open part of the slipper. Then join the fabric and knit in the round, right on down the foot, eventually reducing the number of stitches toward the toe. Sew up the back, knot up loose ends, and voilà! The slippers are ready for felting in the washing machine.

These green and purple pichots, a Christmas gift for my mother, were my first felted project. Man, is felting magical. In two washings, this men's slipper will go from Shaq-sized:

...to a snugly size 10.

With bulky yarn, a pair of women's pichots should take no more than 8 hours, perfect for a weekend project, and for using up bits of leftover yarn.

Stay warm this weekend, mon ami!

Me gusta homemade tortillas.

2009-12-29T16:07:00.001-05:00

My breadmaker hasn't gotten any action since I gave up gluten in September. Without wheat, there's been no crusty peasant bread for me. But no need to mope: in many cultures, wheat is rare or occasional. For lots of people, Our Daily Bread means a bowl of rice noodles or a corn tortilla. Maybe, instead of pining for baguettes, it's time to think outside the European culinary tradition.

Enter my new tortilla press.

Feliz Navidad to me. Making tortillas provides all the tactile joy and warming aromas of baking bread, with none of the waiting or kneading.

The first step to making your own tortillas is mixing masa harina with water. I used Maseca; they don't mill wheat, so there's no risk of cross-contamination. Plus, there are handy instructions on the bag.

Now you get to roll the dough in your hands like play-doh, forming golf ball-sized spheres.

Then place the balls of dough on the press and squash the living daylights out of them (this is the truly fun part). Plastic on either side of the tortilla keeps the press clean and makes moving the tortilla easy.

The tortillas get cooked over medium-high heat for 50-60 seconds per side. A tortilla warmer keeps them soft until you're ready to eat. Celiac disease is a wonderful excuse to buy yourself specialized tortilla equipment. It's not expensive—it'll pay for itself in four or five loaves of gluey rice bread—and it practically turns your kitchen into a taquería. My first homemade tortillas were heartier and fresher than any I've bought in a store. I don't think I'll ever go back.

When it came time to serve these, with black beans, rice, tomatoes, lettuce, sautéed peppers, and guacamole, I wasn't sure whether to call them fajitas or soft tacos. Both consist of warm tortillas folded around fillings, so what's the difference? My Mexican culinary vocabulary is limited—I am from Maine, the whitest, oldest, and most capsaicin-phobic state in the union. I remember being fond, in junior high, of McDonald's chicken fajitas. There was no Taco Bell.

It wasn't until college that I discovered a world beyond the Old El Paso taco kit (don't get me wrong, that ground beef seasoning packet is delicious, but it's neither Mexican nor food). Then I married someone from southern California, and received an education in enchiladas, empanadas, chilies rellenos, and tamales. For a time we lived above a restaurant called Taco Taco, and it became our second home.

I guess it doesn't matter what you call this meal. It was fresh and filling, and while I was cooking and eating it, I didn't miss wheat at all. I can feel a Mexican binge coming on; after months of gentle rice and mild soup, it's time revel in flavor and a style of bread that doesn't require alteration to be safe and delicious.

A final note: I'm so pleased to have avocados back in my life. For years, I thought I was allergic, because every time I ate them I got sick. Now I'm eating guacamole with gusto, and realizing it was flour tortillas that made me ill. Welcome back, you fatty fruit. I used this recipe, but next time I'll wing it with some lime juice, cilantro, onion, tomato, and salt.

¡Hasta Luego!

Merry Christmas to All

2009-12-24T13:06:00.001-05:00

See you next week.

Last-Minute Knitting

2009-12-23T16:47:00.001-05:00

How did I get myself into this? The weekend before Christmas with three gifts left to make.

First, a basic men's hat that I had to rip out and restart twice, because it was comically enormous. A quick project that ate up most of a weekend.

Ellie as unwilling hat model:

I also knitted a lace bookmark, to make an Amazon gift card feel a little more personal:

I used a skein of mystery yarn (rayon, I think) I picked up a few months ago for two dollars. I love the colors, but it was awfully slippery to work with. The pattern is available here; it makes a great 2-hour project.

It's Christmas Eve Eve, and I've got one pair of felted slippers to go. Back to the needles and sappy holiday films.

Holiday Potluck Foods

2009-12-21T08:45:00.001-05:00

This weekend I baked my second annual batch of Rumnog Pecan Cookies (from Veganomicon). Though I love nutmeg, I suspect it's the rum that makes these such a hit: two tablespoons in the cookies themselves, and two more in the frosting. If getting tipsy on cookies appeals to you, The Washington Post published the recipe (it says adapted, but the ingredients are identical and the procedure merely paraphrased). I made this batch with gluten-y all-purpose flour and then disinfected my kitchen.

For a healthier alternative to the ubiquitous cheese platter and vat of meatballs, I made a red and green edamame salad. It's based on Veganomicon's Corn and Edamame Salad, with red bell peppers instead of corn, green onions and almonds tossed in, and a 1:1:1 ration of sesame oil, rice vinegar, and tamari. Simple, fresh, and quite filling.

What are your favorite holiday party dishes?

Peppermint Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels

2009-12-17T15:24:00.001-05:00

Candy canes put me instantly in the Christmas spirit. Eating them transports me back twenty years to when I sat on the couch watching Christmas movies, wearing them down to finely-tipped spikes which I used to probe cavities and administer minty vaccinations.

It wouldn't be December without candy canes, but I'm not willing to eat corn syrup or red 40, blue 1, yellow 5, or any of the other chemical weapons present in conventional brands. Fortunately, I tracked down some Pure Fun Organic Candy Canes at Whole Foods. They're made with evaporated cane juice, brown rice syrup, and peppermint extract, and colored with a mix of elderberry, apple, and black currant juice. No refined sugars, no freakish dyes, and they taste exactly like normal candy canes. They're available online, but shipping is steep. Amazon sells Organic Peppermint Swirl Mint Pinwheels, which are the wrong shape but right flavor.

Since a dozen candy canes is a few too many to just straight up eat, I considered some pepperminty desserts. A google search turned up some good ideas, but I finally settled on a holiday treat that is stupidly easy: pretzels dipped in chocolate, dipped in smashed up candy canes. Salty and sweet and incredibly addictive, they're perfect for a party or last-minute gift.

I used Glutino Pretzel Twists (remarkably tasty and normal) for this no-bake gluten-free alternative to Christmas cookies. The straightforward ingredients and method have been documented on dozens of blogs, but I'll share my tips and ratios.

Peppermint Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels

salted pretzels, any shape
12-oz. bag vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips (white chocolate would be nice, too)
12 peppermint candy canes

Clear some counter space and lay out sheets of wax or parchment paper.

Place candy canes in a sealed plastic bag and smash (!) with a hammer or rolling pin until they are like fine gravel, but not completely pulverized. Pour the crushed candy canes in a small bowl and set aside.

Melt chocolate gently. (Create a poor man's double boiler by setting the bottom of a small metal bowl in a pot of hot water.) Set melted chocolate beside crushed candy canes.

Use chopsticks or skewers to submerge pretzels one at a time in melted chocolate. Allow excess chocolate to drip off. Dip pretzels in crushed candy canes and set on wax paper, leaving space between pretzels.

Or dispense with the skewers and use your fingers to dip half of each pretzel in the chocolate and candy canes. Still pretty.

Place pretzels in a cool, dry place and allow to set for 2-3 hours.

Pumpkin-Citrus Soup at Maine Food & Lifestyle

2009-12-14T05:30:00.001-05:00

Cold? Hungry?

I've posted pumpkin soup (with orange and coriander) at Maine Food & Lifestyle. Come on over, and bring a spoon!

Bonus squash-chopping tips, too.

Snowy Day with Gingerbread and 'Nog

2009-12-09T16:25:00.001-05:00

It's the first official snow day of the winter: no school, no driving, and no reason not to spend the day in pajamas. It's simply too dangerous out there to leave the warmth of the kitchen, where I've been working on some holiday dessert ideas.

Ice cream might be the furthest thing from your mind during a blizzard, but I've been dreaming of frozen eggnog since before Thanksgiving. I am in love with nutmeg, but don't enjoy eggnog's thick, gluey mouthfeel, and I can do without the egg yolks, too.

My solution? Lots of nutmeg, lots of cream (coconut and soy), some sugar and a smidge of rum, swirled around in the ice cream maker until light and fluffy. You could make ice cream out of commercially available soy or rice nog, but this from-scratch version is just as easy.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, put one on your Christmas list—it'll open up a whole new world of dessert.

Veganog Ice Cream

1 14-oz can coconut milk
1 cup soy creamer
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons dark rum (optional, but alcohol improves the ice cream's texture)

Mix all ingredients in a blender until uniform. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer safe container. Cover and freeze until firm.

Makes about 3 cups.

Delightfully rich and spicy on its own, veganog ice cream is perfect sandwiched between gingerbread cookies. In my gluten days, I liked this vegan gingerbread recipe (see last winter's Gingerbread Graemes). To make them gluten-free, I replaced the all-purpose flour with the following:

2/3 cup white rice flour
2/3 cup tapioca flour
2/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

I based my mix on Bette Hagman's Featherlight Flour, which I learned about here. The dough behaved normally; I was able to roll it out and cut it into shapes. The cookies looked perfect coming out of the oven, but their undersides were cakey and undercooked, and they clung to the baking sheet. Since my cookies were destined for ice cream sandwiches, this didn't matter.

What's wrong here?

They taste like normal gingerbread, but they leave a film on the roof of my mouth. Is it the xanthan gum, the cornstarch, or the tapioca? I'm too new at this to know. Fortunately, we like gingerbread, so I'll be able to test out this recipe with a different flour mix.

I'm going to assemble a bunch of these puppies and stick them in the freezer for instant, effortless dessert down the road.

Okay, I've had my fun. Time to shovel.

On Not Planning Ahead

2009-12-03T15:55:00.001-05:00

I've been knitting furiously in preparation for Christmas. How do I end up rushing every year? I knew last spring and summer that I'd need gifts for people by the end of December, but I never seem to get serious until football season begins, and I'm guaranteed four consecutive hours on the couch each week.

You can see how simple these mittens are. They're made from the same pattern, and the embellishments are basic. They're warm, they're cozy, they're cute, and I'm happy with them until I see something like this, and begin to feel inadequate. My mittens, with their accidental holes and lumps and ill-conceived colorwork, look so sloppy in comparison.

I would love to have the time, focus, and patience to make intricate Scandinavian mittens. It's a dream of mine, but it's not going to happen. Knitting gauge swatches, counting rows, and following patterns makes me cranky. I knit on autopilot, so my hands have something to do while I watch a movie. I enjoy the nearly instant gratification of knitting hats and mittens with thick yarn (the teal pair only took me three days), and lose interest in projects that drag on longer than a week.

This month at school, I'm reading folk tales to the kindergarten and first grade. The other day we read the story of the Three Little Pigs, which encourages us to plan ahead and work carefully, like the pig who builds his house with bricks. If you rush, like the pig who builds his house out of straw, your crummy house will blow over, and if you get eaten you probably deserve it for being such a slob.

But you know what? I understand where that first pig is coming from; he gets the job done and moves on. No boring measuring or reading blueprints at his house.

So you see why the cables in my purple mittens are off center. I counted wrong. No matter, they're still cute and still warm. And we don't have wolves in Maine, anyway.

Here is the beginning of my next pair of Christmas mittens. They'll be violet with some type white accent. What will the final design look like? Who knows, I'll decide as I go.

If you're looking for precision, ask another piglet.

Curried Carrot Salad at Maine Food & Lifestyle

2009-12-01T14:47:00.001-05:00

When it's cold and wet, all I want are warming starches. Mashed potatoes, risotto, grits with margarine—no wonder I start to feel like a washed-out blob this time of year. While light, healthy raw vegetables are usually the furthest thing from my mind, I try to remind myself to eat them at least a few times a week. I received lots of carrots in my holiday CSA share, so I worked up this curried carrot salad with apple cider vinaigrette. Even though the carrots are raw, the curry, pepper, and cinnamon give the salad warmth. It's great for lunch with cooked quinoa and fruit. Go check out the recipe at Maine Food & Lifestyle.

Review: Harvest Moon Deli in Orono, Maine

2009-11-30T08:29:00.001-05:00

Harvest Moon Deli occupies a long, sunny storefront on Mill Street in Orono. It's just a few doors down from Fiberphilia, so I always order a sandwich during Saturday knitting classes. Harvest Moon offers several vegetarian sandwiches, and it's easy to assemble a vegan sandwich from the tempeh, hummus, mustard, and vegetables on the make-your-own menu. Little Lad's Herbal Popcorn and Maine Root natural root beer are also available for a treat.

When I gave up gluten, I thought my deli sandwich days were over, but recently Harvest Moon began carrying Food for Life White Rice Bread! It's dense, but it tastes like bread, and it held together my hummus, carrot, spinach, tomato, olive, and pickle sandwich. Of the packaged gluten-free breads I've tried, it is the least weird. We stopped by for lunch this weekend, and I was delighted to have choices beyond a garden salad and bag of chips.

Harvest Moon is a safe bet for a tasty vegan lunch (rare north of Bangor), especially if you're gluten-free. They usually feature a vegetarian special with tempeh bacon, tofurkey, or cheese. I'd love to see them expand their nondairy offerings by adding avocado and vegan mayonnaise to the make-your-own menu. Harvest Moon earns three chickpeas for vegan friendliness, and my everlasting gratitude for stocking rice bread.

My Trendy Thanksgiving Menu

2009-11-25T17:43:00.001-05:00

2009 is the year turkey-free Thanksgiving became mainstream. The New York Times has been sharing vegan and vegetarian recipes on its Well Blog, and last week Martha Herself dedicated a show to vegetarian holiday recipes. Even my local paper, the Bangor Daily News, jumped on the bandwagon with a story last week (I'm in there, five or six paragraphs down).

Despite the hostility evident in some readers' comments (why so defensive, meat-eaters?), I hope this recent attention helps allay the anxiety of hosts and hostesses cooking for vegan guests. Creating colorful, interesting plant-based dishes is easy; the links above include more than a dozen recipes.

One great thing about vegan dinner guests is that by and large, they love to cook and share. I'm eating elsewhere this year, and bringing the following:

A salad of spinach, sliced apple, pecans, red onion, and pepitas with Cranberry Vinaigrette
Chickpea Pot Pie
Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Pecan Pie a la mode, made with Namaste Gluten Free Biscuits, Piecrust & More flour mix

I'm most excited about the pie; I used the recipe last year and adapted it this time, omitting the ginger and adding cinnamon, nutmeg, and a cup of shredded coconut. I believe the Pilgrims would have approved.

A happy and relaxing Thanksgiving to you, whatever you're eating.

I am Ready for Some Football

2009-11-22T21:37:00.001-05:00

Beer and pizza. Pizza and beer. Impossible to achieve gluten-free, you say?

Nay! This recipe resulted in a deliciously normal crust. Crispy center, thick chewy edges, and a rich wheat bread flavor. Substituting powdered soymilk for dry milk and agar flakes for the gelatin didn't affect my results. Best of all? This crust is packed with protein-rich chickpea flour.

I thawed some of the pesto I froze last August and brought it back to life in the blender with olive oil and fresh spinach. Then I added my favorite toppings, kalamatas and broccoli, and enjoyed the best pizza I've eaten in years.

Pesto pizza, a perfectly adequate pint of Redbridge, and five Jets turnovers: Sunday afternoons don't get much better than that.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce: Almost as Easy as Opening a Can

2009-11-20T16:21:00.001-05:00

Forget turkey, stuffing, or mashed potatoes: nothing tastes more Thanksgiving than cranberry sauce. I grew up on the bouncy, uniform stuff, the kind that keeps the shape of the can and slides around the serving plate. I find it too sweet now, but I'm sentimental about the jiggle. (Do they even sell that stuff between January and September?)

I pulled out my canning equipment, for the first time in a couple of months, to make real cranberry sauce to eat and give away. Let me tell you, boiling four gallons of water for 20 minutes straight is more pleasant on a rainy day in November than in August.

I followed a recipe but tossed in some spices and whole orange. Citrus is acidic, and my jars have sealed, so I'm trusting there'll be no botulism. I cut the recipe in half below, in case you want to make your own cranberry sauce and store it in the fridge. I found the 2:1 ratio of cranberries to sugar a little sweet; you may want to reduce the sugar to 1½ cups. If you're not trying to can the sauce, you can play around with the recipe all you'd like.

Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Adapted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

2 cups sugar (or less, if you'd like)
2 cups water
4 cups cranberries
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/4 orange (with peel)

Pick through cranberries and discard any that are soft or shriveled. Secure cinnamon and cloves in a cheesecloth square.

In a large pot, boil water and sugar over high heat for 5 minutes. Add cranberries, spices, and orange and return to boil. Lower heat and simmer 15 minutes, until most of the cranberries have burst. Remove spices and orange.

Pour into a serving bowl or storage container and cool before serving. Sauce will thicken as it cools. Makes approximately 4½ cups.

Cookie Cheat

2009-11-17T19:05:00.001-05:00

I'm going to admit something I am not proud of: I used a baking mix.

I like to think of myself as a whole foods, slow foods cook, the antithesis of Sandra Lee. Until recently, there was nothing instant or pre-cooked in my cupboards. But since buying an old, demanding house and finding out I have Celiac, I've fallen off my do-it-yourself high horse a bit. I'm busy, I'm disorganized, and gluten-free baking requires more perseverance and good humor than I have at the end of most days.

I've reverted to dorm-style cooking, neglecting my ice cream maker in favor of Purely Decadent (delicious and habit-forming), and heating up Amy's Rice Crust Spinach Pizza (chalky and plastic). I've indulged in Van's Wheat-Free Homestyle Waffles more than once. They're gritty and dry, but they're an instant gluten-free vehicle for maple syrup.

Imagine my dilemma when I discovered that Cherrybrook Kitchen's gluten-free baking mixes are egg and dairy-free. Their sugar cookies call only for margarine, vanilla, and rice milk. I haven't bought a baking mix since high school, but times were desperate. Everyone knows that unless you bake sugar cookies at least once between Halloween and Christmas, Santa will not come to your house. So "bake" them, I did.

You cannot roll this dough out and cut it into adorable holiday shapes. Instead, you form pea-sized balls of dough into spheres which don't spread much in the oven, forming cute little button cookies. I rolled half the dough in cinnamon-sugar, for cheater snickerdoodles.

Once cooled, the cookies were buttery and sweet with a strong vanilla aftertaste. They were soft and chewy, though grainier than traditional sugar cookies.

Bottom line: if I could eat gluten, I wouldn't use this mix, because I'd make big, flat, conifer-shaped sugar cookies from scratch. But since I've yet to crack the code of gluten-free, egg-free baking, thank goodness for Cherrybrook Kitchen sugar cookie mix. These will tide me over until next year.

A Lifetime of Homely Cakes

2009-11-12T16:08:00.001-05:00

Each November, my husband insists he wants nothing for his birthday—no party, no presents, no balloons or noisemakers or special sparkly hats. He will permit cake, but only if it's eaten in secret, and only if it's carrot.

So that I could eat it, too, I set out to find a vegan recipe that would work gluten-free. People seem to love the Ginger Macadamia Coconut Carrot Cake from Vegan with a Vengeance, so I made a few tweaks to the recipe (more warm and cozy, less Caribbean), and used a mix of gluten-free flours, flax seed, and xanthan gum. I worried when the pudding-thick batter clung to itself in the middle of the cake pans. I became alarmed when the batter never gained loft and browned after only 30 minutes. I was prepared to pull out my back-up all-purpose flour and start again on a cake at least one of us would be able to eat.

As the layers cooled, a few pokes indicated they were in fact fluffy in the middle. I decided to frost them. I was excited to find non-hydrogenated Tofutti cream cheese at my natural foods store, but it didn't hold up well in frosting. No matter how much powdered sugar I added, the whole concoction was gloopy. I threw on shredded coconut and some walnuts to disguise its resemblance to Elmer's glue.

We ate the cake, and it wasn't bad. A little dense, but I'd make it again with some vinegar and baking soda. It wasn't the ostentatious, gleaming white display of frosting ruffles and marzipan carrots I'd imagined but it tasted good, and believe me, I've made uglier birthday cakes.

Four years ago there was this lop-sided spice cake with ~~melted wax~~ vanilla frosting. Our oven wasn't level, so the layers were like wedges. I couldn't be bothered to to frost the sides, or to wait for the cake to cool before assembling it. I'm just not a details person.

Even better is the chocolate cake I made my husband in the kitchen of our dorm when we were first dating. It says "Happy BDAY." Squeezing frosting through the cut-off corner of a ziploc bag did not allow for the elegant script I'd envisioned.

Next year, my husband says he wants something non-traditional, like grilled birthday pineapple. I can definitely make that look good.

Chickpea Pot Pie at Maine Food & Lifestyle

2009-11-10T21:50:00.001-05:00

Still looking for a hearty alternative to turkey? I've posted a recipe for Chickpea Pot Pie over at Maine Food & Lifestyle. Visit me there (and get a load of that gluten-free crust)!

When Life Literally Gives You Lemons...

2009-11-06T16:28:00.001-05:00

...juice them and freeze the juice for later use (it's way too cold for lemonade this time of year).

Last weekend, I was strolling around Bar Harbor when I passed a large box of lemons marked "FREE" in the doorway of a gift shop. I crouched down and loaded up my bag until I had about a dozen and began to feel greedy. In retrospect, I should have just lifted the whole box and put it in the back of my car. I use a lot of lemon juice in baking, salad dressing, tahini sauce, and pasta dishes; I'm always running out of lemons.

I juiced these lemons using my trusty wooden reamer (good exercise!), strained out the seeds and pulp, and poured the juice into an ice cube tray (one cube = 2 tablespoons). Now I'm stocked for at least the next month. I can thaw the cubes for cooking, or toss them into hot tea or sparkling water.

I don't often get the chance to live out a folksy metaphor: I can't throw stones from the comfort of my own glass house, and if I called the kettle black it wouldn't acknowledge me. But thanks, life, for the lemons! I've put them to good use.

Wild Rice Stuffing at Maine Food & Lifestyle Blog

2009-11-04T08:57:00.001-05:00

I'm working on a gluten-free vegan Thanksgiving menu. Here is my stuffing.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T16:35:00.001-04:00

I baked a dozen Chocolate Gluten Freedom Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and topped them with vanilla buttercream and grated chocolate. I used red and yellow India Tree Natural Decorating Colors to make the frosting orange. These dyes aren't as vibrant as the synthetic variety, but their plant-derived ingredients won't give you nightmares.

Happy Trick-or-Treating!

Because Apples Weren't Sweet Enough Already

2009-10-30T16:52:00.001-04:00

Do you like your caramel salty?

Or sweet?

To make this mixed batch of caramel apples, I used this recipe from Chow, substituting soy cream and Earth Balance for the cream and butter, and brown rice syrup for corn syrup (I just couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle of liquid diabetes). With all those substitutions, I was worried they would taste like hippie caramel apples, but they're every bit as chewy and sweet as the classic. They came together more quickly than I expected, though my caramel took 20 minutes to reach 250 degrees instead of the 10 indicated in the recipe. I will definitely use this caramel in the future to smother otherwise healthy food.

The best part of eating caramel apples (besides the stick) is the meeting of super-sweet caramel and tart fruit. After the first bite, apple juice drips behind and begins to melt the caramel, creating a sweet, sour, sticky mess. If the caramel doesn't pull your teeth out, it will surely rot them away: this is the true spirit of Halloween.

I am Not a Rabbit

2009-10-29T20:04:00.001-04:00

The Vegan Month of Food is drawing to a close. The purpose of this month of intensive blogging was to show the world how fun, easy, delicious (and normal) vegan food can be (I can't say the same for gluten-free food, but that's for another day). Vegan MoFo has also been about dispelling misconceptions. Sure, I eat tofu, I eat lentils, but I also enjoy a wide and colorful variety of plant-based food, some of it deliciously unhealthy. Cooking for myself, frequenting vegan-friendly restaurants, and trading ideas with other vegan food bloggers, I sometimes forget how baffling and restrictive a vegan diet can seem to people from outside my food community.

This week, we've got family from across the country staying with us, and trying to plan meals that will satisfy everyone has reminded me of the tension between veganism and the way most Americans eat. One dinner highlighted the common misconception that vegan food = rabbit food: monotonous, flavorless, and relentlessly healthy. The other night, through a series of compromises and circumstances beyond my control, we ended up at Chili's. Fortunately, I was able to print their allergy menu beforehand and study my options. Eliminate meat, eggs, dairy, and gluten from the Chili's menu, and you're left with a dinner salad, sans cheese and croutons. Iceberg lettuce and dry carrots that were shredded last week do not make an attractive or satisfying meal. I picked at my salad and waited until I could get home and eat real dinner: corn tortillas, leftover lentil salad, and blueberry pie a la mode.

I'm not complaining; I wasn't expecting anything better. Vegans, gourmands, and food allergy-sufferers have no business eating at Chili's. But I'm disappointed that a humane meal is still so hard to find outside my vegan bubble; I'm frustrated that to most people eating the Standard American Diet, veganism looks unattractive and unrealistic.

It's easy, really. And totally delicious.

Being vegan does not mean eating salad everyday; it does mean choosing better, more creative restaurants than the chains found next to shopping malls. Unless you live in one of a handful of vegan-friendly major cities, eating well as a vegan requires learning to cook well (from scratch). It means collecting cookbooks and gathering inspiration from other vegans online and in person. It may mean skipping the grocery store for a farmers' market or coop in order to find the freshest fruits and vegetables. To eat well as a vegan, you must love food: cooking it, eating it, shopping for it, and reading about it. Veganism is not deprivation; it is deepening your relationship with fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains.

And that, my friends, is what Vegan MoFo is all about.

How To Write a Recipe

2009-10-28T09:48:00.001-04:00

I'm a little under the weather today, so I'm cashing in my last free post card and referring you to a short piece I wrote for the alumni advice column of my college magazine. I described the process I use to write recipes; you may find this helpful if you want to record old family favorites, submit recipes for publication, or incorporate more recipes into your own food blog. If you're already expert at writing recipes, what are your tricks, and what advice have I left out? The original piece is here (scroll down about halfway), but I've cut and pasted it below:

Writing Your Own Recipes
Share Your Kitchen Creativity with Confidence

With the growing popularity of food blogs and forums, opportunities abound for creative home cooks to share their recipes online. These steps will ensure that readers can reliably reproduce your signature dishes in their own kitchens:

Prepare the dish yourself. Keep a pencil handy to list ingredients, record procedures, and note cooking times. Number the steps and indicate any that occur simultaneously. Don’t overlook preparatory steps like greasing cookie sheets; jot down a reminder to include these at the beginning of the recipe or during a waiting period while vegetables marinate or dough chills.

Make writerly decisions early on. Will your tone will be chatty or matter-of-fact? Will you spell out or abbreviate words like teaspoon and tablespoon? Be consistent. Use frequent paragraph breaks and numbered lists to help readers orient themselves in the text.

Be precise. There’s a difference between “2 cups of walnuts, chopped” and “2 cups of chopped walnuts.” Use specific measures, rather than “a pinch” or “a dash.” If your recipe calls for chopped, sliced, or minced ingredients, list the size and number of items to be used, not just the measured amounts needed—for example, “1 cup sliced carrots (2 large)”— so readers will know how much to buy.

Describe how the food should look, smell, and feel. Don’t just say “saute the onions.” Instead, say “saute the onions for 3-4 minutes over medium heat, until they become fragrant and turn golden.”

Go easy on the dishwasher. If groups of ingredients are to be prepared separately and later combined, avoid dirtying extra bowls and pots. If dry ingredients should be mixed in a large, deep bowl to allow room for liquid ingredients later, say so.

Prepare the dish yourself—again. Follow your own recipe step by step, and make corrections as needed.

Autumn Lentil Salad

2009-10-27T21:56:00.001-04:00

Lentils are pretty adorable to begin with, but look at these guys, all dressed up for the season:

How could I resist? With a little vinegar, mustard, and some vegetables and herbs, I put my festive lentils to use in this Lentil Salad from Veganomicon.

Rich in fiber and protein, this salad sticks to my ribs and keeps me full until late afternoon. I used Raye's Winter Garden Mustard, a delicious blend with dill, garlic and celery seed. Lentils are another healthy protein source that gets little respect outside the vegetarian community. But like any mildly-flavored protein, lentils rise to the occasion with assertive seasoning. They take only 20 minutes to cook and require no soaking, so I use them often in last minute lunches.

A packed lunch with leftover apple pie for dessert. Mmm, autumn.

3 Strikes and I'm Out

2009-10-26T09:42:00.001-04:00

Thanksgiving is coming. Pie is a necessity. I can rock a homemade crust with wheat flour, so this weekend, I set out to find a workable gluten-free crust that doesn't rely on eggs to bind the flour together.

I began my rainy Saturday measuring and combining assorted flours to create a batch of high fiber mix, and another, starchier all-purpose flour from this Celiac book. Instead of committing these expensive, labor-intensive flour mixes to two-crust pies, I used Martha Stewart's Toasted Pecan Dough (as veganized and de-glutenized by kittee) to make a basic apple cinnamon pandowdy. (A pandowdy has only a top crust. It's supposed to look sloppy, so there was none of the usual anxiety or self-loathing regarding edge crimping.)

Since kittee's pandowdy crust turned out so firm and crusty, I followed her lead and used the high fiber mix. It came together in a ball and rolled easily, but sadly, the crust never set; when I tapped on it with a spoon after 40 minutes in the oven, it was still soft as dough. After it cooled, the crust was grainy and disintegrated into crumbs when sliced.

The crust and filling (MacIntosh slices, cinnamon, allspice, sugar, and a bit of gluten-free flour) tasted great, but the final product was more like an apple crisp than pie. Definitely edible, but not fit for company or Thanksgiving.

Next, I followed the recipe again using the high starch white rice flour mix. The crust was lighter, but similarly crumbly and disappointing.

Sunday morning I went in a different direction: blueberry, with a crust out of the aforementioned Celiac book. The author said the key to success with gluten-free crust is extended chilling. After 2 hours in the refrigerator, the dough was too dry to roll out; it came apart in chunks when I applied pressure. Apparently this is typical. Deflated, disappointed, too impatient to chill the dough and try again, I laid the broken crust on top of the filling, Bittman style.

In this pie I used 1 quart blueberries in syrup, lemon juice, and 1/4 cup tapioca starch.

The crust firmed up but did not really brown (that's cinnamon sugar on top). It tasted like regular pie crust. Should I try again, and add more water for increased flexibility?

There are other recipes; should I play around with egg substitutes? Should I give up on the dream of a gluten-free vegan pie crust that looks and tastes and behaves normally? Should I throw in the towel and go the ground nuts/dates/syrup route?

Three crummy pies in two days. Luckily, pie freezes well.

So, So Quaint

2009-10-23T17:36:00.001-04:00

I'm fortunate to have a well-stocked farm stand a mile from my house. This fall, it's supplied me with pumpkins, apples, cider, root vegetables, and dried beans. I stopped by today for apples—I've been eating two or three Cortlands a day, and I'm going to attempt a gluten-free pie this weekend (wish me luck).

Tomorrow from noon to 4pm, The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association holds its annual Great Maine Apple Day at the Common Ground Educational Center in Unity. The event celebrates the diversity of Maine apples with tastings, cooking demonstrations, and cider making, as well as workshops on fruit tree pruning and Maine apple history. Vendors will be selling local organic apples and apple products. It sounds like nice way to spend a rainy afternoon. Maine readers, are any of you planning to go?

This is why October is better than all the other months.

Easy Cranberry Vinaigrette

2009-10-22T17:25:00.001-04:00

Last week I finally got around to trying this Cranberry Vinaigrette recipe, clipped from a 2005 issue of Cooking Light. I found it too thick and too tart; it was more like unsweetened cranberry sauce than salad dressing. Left with a nearly full bag of cranberries, I altered the recipe and tried again. The second batch was still too thick, and I added too much sugar. The third time through, I simplified the recipe, adding more oil to dilute the tart flavors, and switching to mild apple cider vinegar. As the saying goes, third time's a good vinaigrette.

I like this on a salad of mixed greens, spinach, sliced apple, red onion, toasted pecans, and raw pepitas; the cranberries really jazz up these rich, earthy flavors. The nuts and seeds provide healthy fats, and the cranberries are packed with antioxidants.

Easy Cranberry Vinaigrette

1/2 cup whole raw cranberries, rinsed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Purée all ingredients in blender. Serves 2.

Maine's cranberry harvest is going on right now. Find some local berries and try this easy, healthy salad dressing!

Courtesy of the Blue Binder: Tofu Salad Sandwich

2009-10-21T18:21:00.001-04:00

Nothing fancy or gourmet today, just a humble, delicious tofu salad wrap. I found this recipe for Tofu Sandwich Spread years ago on allrecipes.com, and return to it when I need something quick, easy, and filling for packed lunches.

Like Soy Surprise or Lentil Loaf, Tofu Sandwich Spread is one of those recipe titles that frighten omnivores. Stop squirming, tofu-phobes: extra-firm bean curd is no bouncier than a hard-boiled egg, and I'll bet you'd eat an egg salad sandwich. Thanks to celery, green onion, mayo, and lemon juice, this tastes like the expensive vegetarian chicken salad I used to buy at Little Lad's and Whole Foods (maybe it tastes like real chicken salad, too, but I couldn't tell you).

This basic recipe lends itself to experimentation. I like to double the celery and green onion, and use vegenaise, gluten-free soy sauce, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Black olives make a good addition, as do shredded carrots, dijon mustard, and curry powder. I'll bet you can come up with all kinds of ways to help tofu salad sandwiches get the respect they deserve.

Risotto Tastes like a Big Warm Hug

2009-10-20T19:33:00.001-04:00

Whenever I'm enjoying a bit of self-pity, I make butternut squash risotto. The classic pairing of empty starch with generous quantities of fat make it an ideal comfort food. Already this fall, I've eaten it three times.

This recipe, culled from a Williams-Sonoma autumn catalog, taught me how to cook risotto from scratch. It taught me how to caramelize onions. It taught me how to deglaze a pan with white wine. It made me love sage. This risotto was the first food I ever made that tasted good enough to serve in a restaurant. Enamored, I made it every week for months until my husband grew to hate butternut squash (more for me, fool).

Tips:

This recipe is easily veganized: substitute vegan margarine for butter and omit the cheese.

I typically use dried herbs at a ratio of 1 tablespoon fresh : 1 teaspoon dried.

One large yellow onion should yield 2/3 cup caramelized onions: slice into thin half moons and stir frequently in a bit of oil or margarine over low heat until sweet and browned, 15-20 minutes. Add a teensy bit of brown sugar if you choose.

Of course, the best part of making risotto is polishing off the wine remaining after you've deglazed the pan. If you're going to stand at the stove stirring non-stop for 30 minutes, you might as well keep it interesting, right?

Where the Wild Rice Are

2009-10-19T17:36:00.001-04:00

Alongside my tall cookbooks, I keep a binder of recipes collected from newspapers, magazines, and blogs. I cut them out and print them with the best of intentions, but never get around to using most of them. A few recipes, though, have introduced me to new ingredients and ways of cooking, and steadily become regulars in my rotation. This week, I want to share with you the highlights of my blue binder.

I rarely buy food magazines (I already own so many neglected cookbooks), but a few years ago I splurged when a pecan-oatmeal pie sang to me from the cover of the Cooking Light Thanksgiving issue. That pie recipe alone was worth $4.95 (I haven't yet attempted to make it vegan or gluten-free), but the issue included other winners. This Wild Rice and Leek Soup supplanted potato leek soup in my repertoire; I make it five or six times each winter.

Over the years I've altered the recipe slightly, but not so much that I feel justified in reposting it here. Instead of cooking spray, I use a tablespoon of Earth Balance margarine. I substitute vegetable broth for chicken, use whatever potatoes I have on hand, and add a ton of black pepper. When I was vegetarian, I included the 1/4 cup of whipping cream at the end; now I just leave it out. You could substitute soy cream, but all you're adding is fat without flavor, and the soup doesn't need it.

Through this recipe I became familiar with wild rice, which isn't rice at all, but the seed of a water grass species native to the north central United States. Though it is usually combined with other grains in pre-mixed pilaf, the rich, mushroomy flavor and chewy texture of wild rice deserve showcasing on their own. Dried wild rice can be expensive, but it triples in volume when cooked, so a little goes a long way.

Now through Thanksgiving, Maine farmers harvest massive leeks, twice the size of any I've seen in grocery stores. One leek, sliced, gives me almost the three cups called for in this recipe. Earthy, understated thyme is a perfect match for wild rice and sweet, pungent leeks. Use fresh herbs if you have them, but 1 teaspoon of dried thyme works well in this soup.

This recipe for Wild Rice and Leek Soup is one of my all-time favorites; I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Gluten-free Rambling in Portland, Maine

2009-10-16T17:20:00.001-04:00

I made a special trip to the big city yesterday, hoping to find a wide selection of gluten-free products at Whole Foods. If my local natural foods store has an aisle of gluten-free goods, I assumed Whole Foods would have a giant aisle. Instead, there was a measly endcap, with a few GF items sprinkled throughout the rest of the store. With the exception of cheap store-brand cashew butter, Whole Foods doesn't carry anything I can't find in Bangor. (Maybe there just aren't many GF products to be found? I'll repeat: being vegan is so much easier than being gluten-free.) My haul included breakfast cereal, corn flour, pretzels, graham crackers, fried corn kernels (like fritos, but not ground up yet—they'll become fritos in my belly), and some naturally gluten-free mangos.

After shopping, I headed to GRO Cafe, Maine's first raw vegan restaurant. I recharged with a cup of tea, and took some raw chocolates to go. I'm partial to the coconut, but blueberry is nice, too. I find raw chocolate a little grainier and more rich than traditional chocolate. All of GRO cafe's ingredients are gluten-free and vegan, with the exception of the locally-produced honey used to sweeten drinks and desserts.

I ended the day, once again, at Green Elephant. I know there are other vegetarian restaurants in Portland, but I can't break away. I hadn't visited since going gluten-free, and was disappointed to find my choices limited to one appetizer, one soup, and one entree. While I appreciate that Green Elephant's gluten-free options are labelled on the menu, I expected more from a health and diet-saavy restaurant specializing in a cuisine not known for bread. (It's silly and frustrating that tamari is the only ingredient preventing me from safely eating the peanut sauce, since gluten-free tamari is widely available.) These raw collard wraps, with carrot, cabbage, mango, cilantro, and a tamarind dipping sauce were crunchy and delicious, but I missed my fresh rolls.

Next I ate Tofu Tikka Masala, with spinach, edamame, and chick peas served on rice. The tofu, Camden's own Heiwa, was the firmest, heartiest 'fu I've ever eaten.

I've got lots of cooking, house painting, and an all-day sock class planned for this weekend. We're already halfway through Vegan MoFo, can you believe it?

Boo!

2009-10-15T22:26:00.001-04:00

This sweet, spooky, portable guy looks straight out of Vegan Lunch Box. He'd liven up any third grade Halloween party, but at my house, grown-ups pack this sort of thing for lunch.

I've finally found a use for all those holiday-themed cookie cutters I bought last summer, before I gave up gluten. I followed this recipe for classic Rice Krispies Treats, using vegan margarine, Dandies vegan marshmallows, and Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal (Kellogg's Rice Krispies are sweetened with barley malt).

Call me simple, but nothing brightens my day like a dessert with chocolate eyeballs.

Baked Beans, Lucky Me

2009-10-14T21:43:00.001-04:00

With the temperature below freezing this morning and frost still on the grass, I began a slow-cooking batch of that classic New England comfort food, baked beans. The recipe I follow most often, from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, is a sweet, mild mix of beans, winter vegetables, molasses, mustard, allspice, and dark rum (I keep a bottle on hand for just these occasions; it makes me feel like a pirate). Sometimes, if I'm in a cowboy mood, I use a recipe for Smokey Maple Baked Beans from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook, with lots of chipotle, jalapeno, and syrup. I especially like them poured over a naturally gluten-free baked potato.

This evening, for the first time since April, I needed mittens to walk the dogs. Nothing warms me up from the inside out like a bowl of hot baked beans.

Do you have a favorite baked bean recipe?

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache

2009-10-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

The under-appreciated pairing of pumpkin and dark chocolate brings tears to my eyes. You'll find the recipe for these Halloween-y cupcakes at Maine Food & Lifestyle. I developed it this summer, as a back up for my Bangor Metro Food File. I wasn't gluten-free then, and neither are these cupcakes. I intended to work up a GF version this weekend, but I was out of pumpkin, so sucks to my ass-mar.

(Naturally) Gluten Free Vegan Treats: Mulled Apple Cider

2009-10-12T17:50:00.001-04:00

There's nothing like coming in from hours of raking on a cold October afternoon to a steaming mug of mulled cider. I worked off of this recipe but made a few changes. Cider's sweet enough without adding brown sugar, if you ask me.

Mulled Apple Cider

8 cups fresh, unfiltered apple cider
1 orange with peel, quartered
15 cloves
4 3-inch sticks of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
7 pods of cardamom
3 star anise

Bring all ingredients to a low boil in a large saucepan. Cover and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes. Pour hot cider through a fine mesh strainer into mugs or a heat proof pitcher.

Makes 8 cups.

(See those warm cozy mittens? I macht them.)