I intended to bring you a homemade vanilla and cinnamon cashew butter today.  Something sweet and salty you could put on crackers or use as a dip.

I had all the right ingredients whirring away in my food processor.

And whirring.  And whirring.

10 minutes later, my cashews still hadn’t turned into butter and the food processor had started smoking.

I decided to speed up the process by adding extra oil, which did approximately nothing.  How about just a little water?

That’s when things really went downhill.  I clearly know nothing about making nut butters.  The result was vanilla cinnamon crystallized cashew gunk.  Fail.

So you get soup, again.  Trust me, it’s much better than the mess that came out of my smoking hot food processor.

I’ve still got a lot to learn about nut butter, but I know my way around a soup.

Ingredients

2 cups red lentils
3/4 cup yellow split peas
8 cups vegetable broth (or 4 cups vegetable broth and 4 cups water)
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 t. ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt, more as needed
2 T. olive oil
Lemon juice

Directions

Bring lentils, split peas and broth to a boil. Lower to a simmer. Stir occasionally and simmer for about 40 minutes, until both lentils and split peas are soft.
Heat olive oil in a small pan.  Add garlic, salt and coriander.  Fry in pan until garlic begins to brown.  Add to the soup and let simmer a bit longer.

Add a good squeeze of lemon juice and adjust seasoning to taste.  Serve warm, garnished with fresh cilantro and red pepper flakes.

Source:  Heavily adapted from Herbavoracious

Year of the Noodle:  Week 51

I went on a pantry cleaning spree yesterday.

By pantry I of course mean the bookshelf we use to store our dry goods (our apartment has no pantry to speak of.)  We have loads of stuff shoved into this bookcase.

There were bags of bulk items bursting at the seams.  Cereal bags tipped over and spilling.  Cans upon cans of beans shoved behind jars of nuts shoved behind containers of dried fruit.  And then there was the pasta.

Oh, the pasta.

1/8th of a bag of elbow macaroni.  1/2 box of no cook lasagna noodles.  Two separate boxes of linguini – spinach and regular – both spilling out from either end.  A full bag of medium sized shells (accidentally purchased by John when I sent him to the market for jumbo shells.)

What a mess.  Most of the pasta remnants didn’t survive.  (What does one make with 1/8th package of macaroni?)  But I was insistent that the full bag of shells would not go to waste.

So while this recipe calls for spaghetti noodles, but I subbed in shells.  It kinda feels like a grown up shells and cheese dish that way.  And I didn’t have to purchase yet another box of spaghetti.

I have just one more noodle dish to go.  Then I refuse to buy pasta for at least a month.  The pantry and I both need a break.

Ingredients

6 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, 4 ounces finely grated (about 2 cups) and 2 ounces coarsely grated (about 1 cup)
1 pound shell pasta
Table salt
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons finely ground black pepper

Directions

Place finely grated Pecorino in medium bowl. Set colander in large bowl.

Bring 2 quarts water to boil in large Dutch oven. Add pasta and 1½ teaspoons salt; cook, stirring frequently, until al dente. Drain pasta into colander set in bowl, reserving cooking water. Pour 1½ cups cooking water into liquid measuring cup and discard remainder; return pasta to now-empty bowl.

Slowly whisk 1 cup reserved pasta cooking water into finely grated Pecorino until smooth. Whisk in cream, oil, and black pepper. Gradually pour cheese mixture over pasta, tossing to coat. Let pasta rest 1 to 2 minutes, tossing frequently, adjusting consistency with remaining ½ cup reserved pasta water. Serve, passing coarsely grated Pecorino separately.

Source:  America’s Test Kitchen

Happy Winter Solstice!

It’s the shortest day of the year, and the first day of winter.

It’s cold and dark.  You need soup.

Hearty, filling soup that feels like comfort food.  It’s vegan, so it must be guilt free.  Although you can add back in the butter and cream if you miss them, but I guarantee you won’t.

Make yourself some baked potato soup.  Load on the toppings.  Rejoice in knowing the days only get longer from here.

Ingredients

4 large baking potatoes
2/3 cup Earth Balance non-hydrogenated margarine
2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 cups unsweetened almond milk
2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
4 thinly sliced green onions
10 tempeh bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1/2 – 1 cup shredded non-dairy cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Scrub the potatoes, pat them dry and wrap them in foil. Bake for 75 minutes or until tender.  Set them aside until they’re cool enough to handle, and then peel and cube them.

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the margarine.  Using a whisk, stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and whip until everything is smooth and there are no lumps of flour.  This is your roux.  Cook until the flour loses its raw taste and the roux is bubbling.

Gradually add the almond milk and vegetable broth, about 2 cups at a time.  Whip the mixture constantly to make sure you smooth out any lumps.  Bring the mixture to a boil, and cook and stir for a couple minutes or until it’s thickened.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the nutritional yeast.  Once it’s incorporated into the soup, add the cubed potatoes.  Cook until the potatoes are warmed through.

To serve, top each bowl with some chopped green onions, shredded non-dairy cheese and crumbled vegan bacon (or bacon bits), and season to taste.

Source: C’est La Vegan

The hotel staff screwed up.

On our wedding night, at the hotel where we were married, John and I were supposed to receive a bottle of champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, and a gift certificate for a free stay on our one year anniversary.

We knew nothing of this until about six months after our wedding.  That’s when John’s brother and sister in law thanked us for sending them a bottle of champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, and a gift certificate for a free stay at the hotel.

Apparently the hotel staff didn’t check to see that there were more than one Mr. and Mrs. with the same last name staying in the hotel and delivered our goodies to the wrong room.  Not cool.

So I emailed the manager, informed him of the slip up, and made a reservation for our anniversary (which was this past November.)  I assumed he would make up for the error.  Not exactly.

We did get a free stay at the hotel.  But after a little inquiring at the front desk if they might send us some tasty strawberries, they delivered us an old cheese plate and a bottle of cheap Merlot.

So not the same.

We tossed the cheese, and brought the wine home.  But what does one do with a cheap bottle of Merlot?

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  When life gives you cheap Merlot, you make mulled wine.

Go find your cheapest, most embarrassing bottle of red wine and mull away.  If you happen to work at a hotel and routinely deliver wedding night gifts to brides and grooms, maybe double check that you have the correct room.

Families tend to share the same last name, after all.

Ingredients

One bottle cheap red wine
1 Tablespoon Mulling Spice (or make your own)
1/4 cup brown sugar
Squeeze of fresh orange juice
Cinnamon sticks for serving

Directions

Place wine and spices in a saucepan and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.  Add in sugar and orange juice to taste.  Garnish with a cinnamon stick and serve.

Source: Adapted from Penzeys Spices

I’ve been having nightmares about cream cheese.

Earlier this week I used the leftover sun-dried tomatoes from the stuffed shells recipe to make a sun-dried tomato cream cheese spread.  I had hoped it would turn a morning bagel into something gourmet.

Turns out John and I don’t like sun-dried tomatoes very much, and didn’t like the cream cheese at all.  It got thrown away.

Now it is haunting me in my sleep.

For years I’ve known I can’t watch anything scary or violent because I have nightmares afterwards – I didn’t realize that making bad cream cheese would have the same effect.  My dream imagination is getting a little out of hand.

I mean really, who has nightmares about messing up cream cheese?

Maybe if I eat one of these cornbread muffins before bedtime my brain will be filled with thoughts of delicious recipe successes.  Or at least the cornbread muffin could be my dream hero, and battle it out with the rogue cream cheese.

Great, now I’ve put that idea into my head.  I’ll probably spend my night dreaming about literal food fights now.  Absurd.

You probably don’t have the crazy overactive imagination that I do, but you should still go eat a corn muffin to guarantee you have sweet dreams.  Sweet, buttery, (cream cheese free) dreams.

Ingredients

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup honey

Directions