Why does grocery store baba ghanoush have mayo in it?

It's much better without. Not to mention more heart healthy, for those who care about that sort of thing.


Mmmm, smooooooooooth.

1) Poke an eggplant several times with a fork*, grease up a cookie sheet, and roast at 400 degrees, occasionally turning, until it gets all wrinkly.
2) Drop the eggplant in cold water, and then remove the skin.
3) Food processor magic! Blend eggplant with olive oil, tahini, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
4) Nom nom nom nom nom. (best nom-ing when it's cooled down in the fridge for awhile)

*Once I forgot to poke holes in the eggplant before I roasted it, and it started making a whistling sound akin to a boiling kettle. I caught it JUST before it exploded.

Beaumark Food Processor

Finally, the moment you blog readers have been eagerly waiting for these long weeks. I will now review my food processor.
In summary: it's awesome.

In more detail:
Uh... not really sure how much detail to go in to here. I mean, it's a food processor and it does food processor-y things quite well. It makes a mean hummus, it grates veggies in seconds and it slices like a slicing machine (which it is). I enjoy that the buttons are a smooth surface and easy to wipe off. The whole thing is really quite easy to clean even sans dishwasher. I most frequently use it to chop up lots of carrot and beet early in the week for the copious amounts of salad I eat. Observe:
That is one tasty salad bowl.

The only thing I dislike is that when using the grating plate it leaves a leftover chunk at the top. But really, that is being picky. It's not a big chunk and I just eat it.

To finish off this entry:
quick 'n easy 'n delicious salad dressing. just mix 'er up with a fork.

lemon juice
temari
tahini
dijon mustard
pepper

Pie in a Pot

Speaking of feastivals, ye olde 116 Oxford decided to have a potluck last night, and it was brilliant. The menu was as follows:

Dom = pasta with pesto and tomato sauce (this has quickly become a household favourite)
Greg = garlic egg drop soup over crusty bread
Rachel = tiramisu cupcakes (recipe courtesy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)
Sara = mixed green salad
Ed = veggie pot pies

The subject of this entry is the latter item, since it is, well, so awesome that I can't NOT tell you all about it. This recipe is based on Joy of Cooking's chicken or turkey potpie recipes, tweaked for us veggies/vegans. Special shout out to Greg and Ed for all the photographing.

1) Prepare the dough for pastry of your choice. We used puff pastry dough, rolled out and cut into small personal serving-friendly sized bits, and stuffed into ramekins for baking. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2) Prepare your chicken substitute. We've used commercial veggie chicken strips, but this time we decided to go homemade and stir fried some pressed tofu and then tossed it with jerk seasoning.
3) In large skillet over medium-high heat, melt 2 tbsp margarine and cook 1 medium onion, 3 medium carrots, and 2 small celery ribs (all chopped into oblivion by this crazy chopper thingy that Ed's parents gifted him for Christmas - thanks guys! And also, thanks for Joy of Cooking!).
4) Melt in another saucepan 4 tbsp margarine, and whisk in 1/2 cup flour. Add 2 cups veggie broth and whisk till smooth. Then add 1 1/2 cups milk substitute (we used almond) and whisk till smooth. Increase the heat and simmer, whisking constantly and cook for about 3 minutes. Season with fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper, and nutmeg.5) Stir veggies and tofu into creamy mixture, and then load up this gooey victory into your prepared pastry shell.
6) Bake for 30-40 minutes, eat, and die happy.

xmas feastival

I will write a food processor review soon, maybe after this one is done. First things first though...
I am recently returned from stuffing my face for two weeks at my parents' house. I am a few pounds heavier and a few delicious meals happier.

Oh wait... I can't get to xmas feasting until I talk about the olive potluck! Yes, an olive themed vegan potluck. I made tapenade (with my new food processor, incidentally). There were several olive containing salads, this tasty looking one contained kale, my cruciferous pal. There was a "quiche" made with olives and tofu, olive bread and olive-on-crackers appetizers. Yumz0rs!

A snow delayed, 12 hour long journey to Edmonton later I was in a different food-land all together. It is really nice that my mom is vegetarian now though. Cooking for more than just myself is really nice.

Both my brother and dad have birthdays around xmas so there were a variety of delicious feasts. Here is my Dec-25th dinner. I made tomato sauce and raw nut pesto pasta which Dom and I had made for a dinner at her place and once again it was rich, creamy, tomato-y and drool worthy. There were 3 veggies at the dinner, my mom, Shaun and myself, so we got a tofurkey and made delicious mushroom gravy. Really tofurkey isn't much iwth out the mushroom gravy. My mom also made stuffin' muffin's and made me a couple vegan versions with out the egg knowing my true, unabashed love of stuffing that hasn't been er... stuffed.

There were lots of people to fill lots of chairs. My parents were really all out on the dinner parties this year.


My final Edmonton holiday eating experience I would like to share with you was breakfast made on New Years Day in Dave's kitchen after an unsucesfull attempt to go out and have other people make breakfast for us. We bought some supplies and I whipped up a tofu scramble, Jessica made a batch of Vegan with a Vengence pancakes (sooo good!), Dave made hashbrowns with veggie sausages in maple syrup. Oh yeah, and Jamie made delicious, soft, moist, chewy vegan cinnamon buns in the upstairs kitchen. Best breakfast ever!

Emily Out!