Friday, December 24, 2010

Foodie Friday: S'mores with Sylvia

It's Foodie Friday! Foodie Friday is my weekly feature that gives you a window into my kitchen. I love to cook, I love to eat, I love to read cookbooks, and I love to inspire people to give vegan food a chance. Thus, Foodie Friday was whipped up and baked to perfection.
The Christmas crazy is definitely here, but I managed to set aside some time to recap my cooking adventures from the past couple of weeks.

Let's start off with a culinary triumph that has been years in the making for me: vegan s'mores! You might recall that I obtained some gelatin-free marshmallows all the way back in October. I finally broke those babies out, popped a handful onto a skewer, and toasted them over the flame on my gas stove.


Although I might have almost pulled a Sylvia Plath that night from firing up the burner over and over, it was totally worth it:


It was everything that I had been dreaming about these last few marshmallow-less years. Check that off the bucket list!

It's my mission to make every vegan macaroni and cheese recipe on the planet, so when I saw one for pumpkin mac and cheese, I added it to my list. When my nonvegan cousin randomly made it and loved it, I sprang into action--I couldn't go another day without trying it. It's insanely delicious. The pumpkin makes the sauce so creamy and the spices add a flavor element that you wouldn't expect from mac and cheese. Trust me, if you try it, you'll be hooked!

My next attempt at a pasta recipe, noodles with spicy peanut sauce from 1,000 Vegan Recipes, did not work out as well as the previous. The problem was mine--I haven't yet perfected my rice noodle cooking technique, so I ended up with delicious peanut sauce and a gooey, gelatinous blob of stuck-together rice noodles. Despite my apparent inability to boil water properly, I still ate this for three meals in a row because I couldn't let the tasty sauce go to waste.

Finally, tonight's dinner was spicy black bean orzo soup from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. It was just what I was craving on a wintery night... Although I have to be honest, I had all of the windows in my house open today. It isn't exactly wintery in central California. So I have to pretend that it's wintery. I'm not doing a very good job of fooling myself, but at least I'm eating well.

2 comments:

Jamie said...

Rice noodles are the best invention in the history of ever, next to Daiya. As far as food for many allergied vegans go, any how.

It really depends on the brand- some brands, no matter what you do, end up a gross, gelatinous mess, but others take a lot of abuse and taste terrific every time.

Jessica (Bayjb) said...

I am LOVING the vegan smores! I have to share that with my vegan coworker, were just talking about this last week!