I loved the potato-pea-quinoa soup so much that I had it with some noodles together with some bok choy. It was still really good. Soups with potatoes are just incredible.
I finally tried the famous penne vodka from the excellent Veganomicon (page 193). I used whole-wheat elbows instead of penne and used a little more red pepper flakes. Towards the end of making the sauce, I added some fresh cilantro since we really love cilantro. The penne vodka came out really good. I loved the sauce since it packed a lot of zing. Of course, we can't live without some broccoli in the pasta.
On a final note, I do plan to master my new camera (though I've had it for a few months already) in the next few weeks so that I can take better photos. I bought a whole bunch of vegan frozen food so the following days will be culinarily interesting.
It feels like ages before I blogged again. April went by really fast without me noticing much what was going on in Vox. I hope everyone had a wonderful April. I'm learning to live more in the present, so May will be a little different. I haven't been cooking much at all, but I finally caught up a little yesterday. I made a big pot of soup, potato-pea-quinoa soup. I eyeballed everything so the recipe gives you a lot of room for customization according to your own taste.
Potato-Pea-Quinoa Soup
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
1 orange (or green) bell pepper, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into consistent 1-inch pieces
4 plum tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup yellow split peas, rinsed
3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
8-9 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked for 30 minutes and reserve the soaking water, finely chopped
2 1/2 tsp. tarragon
2 1/2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. sage
1 tsp. oregano
2/3 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Over medium heat, sauté onions, pepper, carrots and garlic for 8-9 minutes until carrots get a little soft.
2. Add potatoes, tarragon, thyme, sage, oregano, parsley and rosemary. Stir once and cover. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes and 3/4 cup of boiling water. Bring to a boil and lower to simmer. Cook covered for 5 minutes.
4. Add peas, quinoa, and chopped mushrooms and the soaking water. Add 2 bay leaves. Add plenty of water (according to your own preference for the thickness of the soup). Bring to a boil and lower to simmer. Cover. Let the soup simmer for 45 minutes. Stir a few times and check the thickness. Add water or uncover a little to achieve your own desired result.
5. When the soup is done, remove from heat. Add paprika and salt and pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves.
Serve with croutons or over rice. We had our soup with some steamed broccoli and raw walnuts.
How do you stay in shape?
1. Try to eat moderately and stop eating after 5 PM.
2. Walk every day. I used to walk at least twice a day. Now I'm trying to do this again.
We both have to lose some more weight before my stepsister's wedding at the end of May.
I'm back. Unfortunately, I feel more strain and stress than before I left because I'll have to travel again soon, to finish the unfinished business. Oh well, the Lord works in mysterious ways and I know things will fall into places at God's pace. I haven't slept well at all, and I'm haunted by my own to-do list. It's a result of lacking faith and having too much fear, I'm sure. On a good note, I've been steadily losing weight because I'm too stressed out to enjoy my food. I guess it will be a good thing if my mood finally changes in the good direction. Maybe 2008 is really one of the biggest turning points in my life.
I haven't done anything special for the 100th post of my food porn and recipe series. So here it is. I did try Bryanna's recipe and make the no-knead yeast bread. I made a pizza and a foccacia with the dough. I still have some of the dough in my fridge that will go to good use. It was a great experience. I can't believe half whole-wheat pizza dough can still be so good, better than the non-whole-wheat dough. The topping was a marinara sauce with two large zucchini. I loaded on lots of herbs. I mean really a lot, which was the key. Great topping and great dough made a great pizza. My husband said it reminded him of an authentic Italian pizza.
I haven't done anything special for the 100th post of my food porn and recipe series. So here it is. I did try Bryanna's recipe and make the no-knead yeast bread. I made a pizza and a foccacia with the dough. I still have some of the dough in my fridge that will go to good use. It was a great experience. I can't believe half whole-wheat pizza dough can still be so good, better than the non-whole-wheat dough. The topping was a marinara sauce with two large zucchini. I loaded on lots of herbs. I mean really a lot, which was the key. Great topping and great dough made a great pizza. My husband said it reminded him of an authentic Italian pizza.
I accidentally took out more dough and I had some fun making a foccacia I didn't really intend to make. I used coarse salt and chives, which gave the foccacia a really good smell. I'm really in love with the no-knead yeast bread now.
I made my first hummus too. I cooked the dried chickpeas myself and shelled all of them for three hours. The hummus was really really good, but unfortunately I didn't snap any photo. I guess I won't be cooking much in the next few days because I really have a lot to do to tie up some loose ends and finish the unfinished business. Until then. God bless!
I'll be gone for several days, maybe a week. Traveling, but not for pleasure. After next week, I'll feel a lot better, I hope. I've been really under a lot of pressure and stress, because I can foresee great changes in our near future. After next week, our life will be very different, in a fantastic way, but still, I don't take changes well. But when I was watching a good movie - Romulus, My father - yesterday, I heard an important line that made me feel much better.
"Things change. But our life is what our thoughts make it."
"Things change. But our life is what our thoughts make it."
So, I'll be going with a little more self-assurance. And with God's grace, I'll be returning with a better feeling. Until then, I wish all of my neighbors and everyone a happy week and a productive blogging week. God bless!
I had a little conflict about joining Great Cooks Blogroll. I'm not a great cook, so I was looking at Jill McKeever's blogroll for a while, a very long while, without any action. (Jill has a great blog Simple Daily Recipes.) But everyone's food seemed so good, I was more and more tempted every day. Finally, I reached a point where I could justify to myself that I had the goal of becoming a great cook. Here I am, proudly annoucing my new membership in the blogroll.
Well, nobody actually said that I had to be a great cook to join. I was just making fun of my indecision for no reason. So, don't be like me. If your blog is 80% about food, recipes, cooking, baking, food photography, food news, etc., you can join right away! And, please, do join right away. It's a great resource for meal ideas and restaurant reviews and other food-related stuff.
Well, nobody actually said that I had to be a great cook to join. I was just making fun of my indecision for no reason. So, don't be like me. If your blog is 80% about food, recipes, cooking, baking, food photography, food news, etc., you can join right away! And, please, do join right away. It's a great resource for meal ideas and restaurant reviews and other food-related stuff.
I can see that the 100th post of "So what the heck do we eat?" series is approaching. I don't know what to do to make it special. Am I obligated to make it into some special event? I don't know, but I do know that I've wanted to make something elaborate for a while. We shall see.
For today, nothing too fancy. The first thing is the Messy Rice (Veganomicon, page 118). The rice wasn't that messy and boy, it was good! It's so easy to make that I'm sure I'll be making this rice on the side often.
And with this photo, I was able to make another banner utilizing another gorgeous photo from Purplesque. This is our orange banner to celebrate the coming of spring.
When I was feeling lazy about cooking, I made a Shanghai-style Braised Chick'n and Bamboo Shoots with Udon Noodles. It was a 15-minute recipe (from preparing to plating). Ingredients: fresh bamboo shoots, button mushrooms, tempeh, and udon noodles. Simply sauté bamboo shoots, button mushrooms and tempeh in vegetable oil with loads of chives (or scallions) for around 7-9 minutes, then deglaze with water and soy sauce and add some sugar. Bring to a boil and cover to simmer for 10 minutes. In the last 3 minutes, add udon noodles. That's it. It was very tasty but I know I shouldn't eat this often.
After this desperate act, I had to make a nutritious and delectable soup to make a good diet day. I made the lentil soup with tarragon and thyme from Veganomicon again. But it's Red Lentil, Quinoa and Potato Soup with Tarragon and Thyme this time. I ran out of carrots so subbed potatoes. And after the onions and potatos were in the pot cooking, I found out that I only had one cup of lentils left. Merde! So, quinoa saved my day again. Oh, did I mention fresh tarragon made the soup even better? The soup turned out to be extremely pleasant and satisfying and my husband really liked it. He said it was very Italian., which made me rather proud of myself.
I really hope I can find the perfect recipe for the 100th post.
One early morning, a stealth catwoman went berserk in my house. I wonder what got into her. After running around chasing toys for several hours, Emma jumped straight onto the windows with mosquito netting and performed a horrifying acrobatic show nine feet above the ground.
Now I know why some cats have to be rescued by the fireman from a tree top. But our catwoman came down by herself once she was bored with the mission and I am NEVER calling the fireman for this!
Photos courtesy of Purplesque. The first banner is already in use here.
The two photos in the last banner are by both Purplesque and Keiko of Nordljus.
I haven't been such a good neighbor. I rarely have time to read blogs or leave comments, which I enjoy doing very much. I've got more than 630 new feeds in my Google reader. I feel like I'm getting busy again. Sometimes I really wonder so hard where all the time has gone. Especially when I continue to read In Search of Lost Time by Proust, I strongly believe I should at least start a quest called "Chasing the Lost Time". But I don't think I have the answer to my own question and I don't have the guts to really chase time.
Well, besides chasing time, I did some cooking. Or rather, I found some photos and had to post them here before forgetting what they were. The first one is Vegan Haggis (recipe by River of Bean Vegan). I didn't have scotch so subbed dark rum. It was quite interesting and satisfying. But we were not really in the mood for it, unfortunately.
Here's how it looked being plated. Well, I know I usually don't spend much time making the plate look nice. All in good time, I guess.
The second is my own 50% Whole Wheat Strawberry Pancakes. The batter is half all-purpose flour (2 cups), half whole wheat flour (2 cups), baking powder (1/2 teaspoon), unsweetened vanilla soy milk (1 1/2 cups) with apple cider vinegar (2 teaspoons), orange juice (3/4 cup), pure maple syrup (3 tablespoons), sugar free strawberry preserves (1 1/2 cups), vanilla extract (1 teaspoon), salt (1/4 teaspoon), olive oil (1/2 teaspoon). You basically sift flours, baking powder, and salt; add vinegar to soy milk to curdle it for 5 minutes; then mix the curdled soy milk with all the other wet ingredients. The last step is to combine the dry and wet ingredients together. The verdict? Great! Very much like spring. It satisfied my strawberry craving.
The last thing is my first attempt at veganizing Buttermilk Spoon Bread. It's a hybrid of polenta, cornbread and a souffle. The original recipe is by courtesy of Nicole of Baking Bites again. The result was rather good but it's definitely a working process. The photo doesn't show the texture well. It was moist, cakey, and pudding-y all at the same time. I'll post the vegan recipe once I think it's perfected to my satisfaction.
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Recent Comments
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Aubrey said:
It has potatoes in it? Then it has to be good. That's just the way things are. read more
on So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 101 -
Purplesque said:
[this is good]That looks So good I want to make it tonight.*Note to self- buy quinoa* read more
on So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 101 -
wyldreams said:
I have to say that this looks REALLY good. I might have to try this recipe... read more
on So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 101 -
cheff jonny said:
I love quinoa for the same reason I like Tobiko, They pop a little between your front teeth. I don't... read more
on So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 101
Thank you everyone! read more
on So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 101