Hiatus, or "How I learned to miss the vegan universe"

It's been forever, huh.

I have to admit that I was testing my reaction to not blogging for a while.  After losing the camera of course my zest/zingawow kinda faded, one can only do so much with a webcam when every casserole looks about the same as your sock pile.  And you do never know how much you love something until you lose it, right?  So I intentionally lost it (the blog), or intentionally got lost.  Whichever way... but it's not right, something's been missing and I miss all of you.  Where else can I get so irretrievably excited over how a zucchini curl twists like it's come from a painting, and where else can I gnash and skip over what everyone's been deep frying or dipping in chocolate or turning from trash to ten-star cuisine?  

I've even been questioning my muffin skills.  For shame.  They're as fabulous as ever, and a number of cakes have gone by, like a towering raspberry maple ice sculpture and a straight up "vanilla with gobs of chocolate frosting and sprinkles" that made me sooooo happy to floof together I can't even tell you.  I even put a cookzine together last week (in the space of a week), for a zine fair last weekend, and it's got most of my best recipes in there.  A lot of mostly cute things, but also the rosewater cheesecake and my sister's opium test-failing Quinoa Poppyseed Salad of unexpected addictiveness.  As soon as I get a camera I'll have it on my Etsy...

Which brings me to the camera issue, and the reason for a hiatus and not an immediate return.  It's pretty simple, it's been officially deemed life-affirming enough for me to drop 150$ on a new one, but I'll have to wait til I go home for christmas to use some fortunately stashed gift certificates to a mall in Ottawa.  So until then, I miss you, I miss this, I'm glad I got to at least go crazy for the Veganmofo, I'm SO disappointed that I won't be able to take a picture of my next cake which is a carrot cake actually shaped like the birthday boy with a little 3d head poking out, hahaha.

So I leave you with this video, which is amusing anyway for having plenty of Data in it, but also 2:27 seconds in you'll see the kinda cake I'll be going for.  Yes it's creepy!  But that's why it's worth doing. ^_^b

VeMoFo#29: Picking Pecks of Pink Papples

There's a texture and a difference to an apple who's home you've seen.  Who's home you've even twisted it off from, that is to say - an apple plucked and fallen into your own basket!  I worked at an orchard out in Ormstown (about an hour out of montreal) at the end of August this summer, just for a few days, but enough time to sufficiently drink in enough of the heavy silence and dusky richness in the air, completely devoid of cell phone crackle, car exhaust, cable hum and well... the city in general.

double stem

I took a certain liking to these pink ones especially.  They're not even eating apples, normally, but used for wine, and they grew all clustered like burnished billiard balls exactly even in size and ridiculously easy to pick, plus fuschia seeds.  The other main kinds we picked were Jersey Macintosh and Jona Golds (crisp as ice!!)

I only just ate the last of these a few days ago... yay for hardy fruit

We also stayed in a trailer!!  So exciting, I love small spaces, and living as MacGuyver-y as possible.  We rotated every precious dish, washed with a teensy cloth (no soap or running water), ate out of tahini jars, and everything was sumptuous to eat because A: we were exhausted, B: communal food obviously tastes best, C: half of it came wild from the land!

Dinner on our last night was a chickpea & wakame & brown rice pilaf, curried coconut vegetable stew, green beans & wild dandelion greens picked just outside, and a stovetop apple pie made with our own apples, on a strawberry granola crust!  Oh, and topped with wild blackberries, and sweetened with dates luckily left over from snacking, of course.

Can I even tell you how overjoyed I was to "bake" in the wilderness?

Zoop's Zon!

I also saw the most amazing tree, curled in and over itself like a snake or a spirit!  I have 4 or 5 pictures of this creature, and in each one it looks entirely different, and exquisite.  

It was in a very long and flat expanse of shale (weak sedimentary river rock) that ran with a shallow crystal brook for kilometres and kilometres up, full of tiny fishes, some fossils, seaweed that looked like mermaid hair, and when you jumped up and down on certain parts of the rock it kind of shattered just a little bit, like jumping on ice in November.  And everything was copper-coloured.

yeah, you can pay me to do this...

VeMoFo#26: Happy black&white camper

Guess what came in the mail todaaaaayyyyy!

Thusly, a half hour later, my very own, first ever NYC black and whites, with extra lime zest, making me feel better about having no vegan bakery in this city.  Something to remedy someday, but for to-day... I couldn't be happier!  I'd seriously run out of cookie recipes in the books I had already, which you might believe at the rate that I make them, and that was stumping me all over the place.  

I'm thinking PB blondies and Irish Whiskey Cremes next.  Somebody hide the sugar from me!

Super Closeup Time ::: one of my favourite buttons, it says Fruit Spirit, kawaii kawaii.  :O

VeMoFo#16: Pixie scones

These are the best scones in existence.  Or they were, at least, while they still existed.  Seriously, mega delicate fairy eats, full of spices and almond, not sweet but buttery.  I used strawberries and plums and lemon juice instead of blackberries and orange and it was perfection, Emilie is a total genius with this kind of stuff, which I hardly need to say, but it's true.

I curled up with them listening to Joanna Newsom on vinyl.  My roommate is so smart, she set up her record player behind the fridge, so we can listen to crackling guitars and also 80's everything while we work!  I like nestling myself against the oven waiting for the timer to go off, and now it's even better cause I can sing along to Bowie.

That's her making pizza.  I love this photo. :)

VeMoFo#15: Plate painting

I cook to plate you know.  It can't be that surprising or secret.  If I didn't have a blog I would still plate, but I certainly wouldn't be grating up beets for no reason other than to burst crimson next to my jalapeno corn gravy and thus discover yet one more thing that tastes surprising and experimental next to eachother, expanding my culinary horizons in just one more left field direction, hurray!

Anyway, it's fairly easy.... and I'm no expert or teacher, but some things I've noticed are...

* Put the most attractive food in the front, or the most substantial food in the middle.  Spiral outwards from that in any direction that makes sense to your eye.  Or build a fort.  Or write your name.

* Big White Plates!  Or at least keep an eye on complimentary colours.  Blue is usually an unappetizing no-no for dishes.  

* Heavy sauces are best on top of food, while thin sauces are better underneath.  Then again, break that rule, too.

* Garnish sparingly, and only with stuff that tastes good, of course.  Of course.

* Get inspired by your favourite abstract art, or any art at all.

* Mix up the textures, too!   And keep things clean - if things spill, wipe it up with a damp cloth all pro-like.  Oh, and nuking things in the microwave tends to bubble over like a cauldron of mess-messy-mess, so you might want to transfer your reheated black bean soup to a new posh bowl after it's long-awaited (6 minutes?!) warmup.

* If you're serving lots of people, I'm not really one for plating in that case, BUT it's definitely nice, and I'll go as far as to say mandatory to have multiple bowls of kaleidoscopic garnishes and sprinklins for the adding at the table.  [toasted seeds, pomegranate arils, fresh herbs, salsas, extra sauces, ground up nuts, fake parm, sliced fruit, sprouts, chutneys, plastic figurines, rainbow sprinkles, avocado, olives, fancy salts, etc, etc.... ].  Guests will be flabbergasted and amused, and later if you break out the fingerpaints they won't be side-winded by the progression. 

Some excellent tips about regular plates, and trays, too.

Startcooking.com recommends being odd.

So does CHOW, but they're both talking about numbers. ;)

VeMoFo#14: Maple > Vegetables

Moving along, and making banana nut waffles a la Vcon, with no berries, but no one's ever complained about excess banana around here, nor a waffle method that involves a nicely greased grill pan and some patience (and low standards for crispiness).  This is pre-waffle iron era, which HAS been christened with Apple-waffs + raspberries + maple soy cream since, but that's a topic to be addressed under the next photo.

No, not an Applewaff here, but the mango-pear pandowdy which is all KINDS of amazing.  I'm going out on a limb here and saying it might be the best pie I've ever made, or at the very least it's in the top 5.  Which wouldn't be complete at all without a big swodge of maple Natur-a Soy Glace Dessert -- my new obsession.  I've been swirling it into coffee for an occasional treat, eating it on raisin-toast, waffles, certainly on pie, where it melts into that lovely fruity cinnamon cornstarch goo we all make pie for, or at least I know I do.

<------ this stuff!  Probably only available in Canada, but if you find it, grab it.  The strawberry flavour of the same brand is passable, but this stuff is brilliant!  It's not a super decadent thing, and the soy flavour is there, but I'm kinda old-school like that, I guess, and it's cheap and not crazy fattening, which are admittedly minor priorities if I'm being honest and everything.  A+ to my taste!

VeMoFo#13: Muffin ESP

Do you see the riotous waft of steam 'ploding off of the succulence?

Veganomicon: Mediterranean Style Lima Beans

Ahhhh, finally!  I'd had a container of giant limas in my pantry that my sister gave me for christmas from - oh, I dunno - years ago, waiting for this recipe specifically, so at last and hurray to myself for making it.  Perfectly delicious!  Like grandma never made, but I always wanted my kitchen to smell like she did it just like this.  

Shyly not mentioned is soft braised carrots and tofu... I've been a braising queen this fall

Also, before I forget, there was some crazy synchronicity happening in the blog-air when I made these muffins!  I mentally bookmarked and triple-underlined these miso pumpkin muffins when I saw them on the Just Bento site (another of my favourite internet places) and only just got around to making them - BUT - what did I discover but that another Mofo-er Cuny Queen had the exact same idea on that exact night.  Amazing!  

Verdict?  Texture is a bit gummy but the flavour makes me want to dance like this kid.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy