worth waiting for

Normally, I'm scrambling to write my post and publish it by Midnight...you may or may not have noticed that, but if you wander through my blog, you'll find most of the posts went up pretty darn close to Midnight.

Truth be told, I could have started writing around 10:30 and had plenty of time to clean up our awesome, make-up-for-last-night dinner.  However, it's now pushing 1am and I still have a kitchen full of messy dishes...why?

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

Mister loves chili, especially since it means he doesn't need to use a pesky utensil to eat.  No, we don't use forks here, we scoop our chili up with multigrain tostitos.  So, to "make up" for last night's less than successful dinner, I made SusanV's Red, Gold, Black and Green Chili.

Not only did this tasty and slightly zesty chili make up for the Seitan and Prunes debacle, it also restored my faith for the third and final recipe on the menu from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.  I should note that I am not faithful to Susan's Fat Free Manifesto - I think olive oil is a good healthy fat when used in moderation and lends a delightful flavor you cannot imitate by sauteing with water.

A few other variations: in place of Tabasco sauce, I added a healthy dollop of harissa, mainly because anything hot-saucy that isn't harissa kind of terrifies me.  At least I know what to expect from harissa.  Also, Mister has mentioned his distaste for "squishy wheat" before, so I decided to forego the barley in the recipe, especially in light of last night's fail.  In place of it, I added a can of Eden Organic caribbean rice-n-beans.  It actually worked out perfectly.

So, why do I still have dirty dishes and I'm sitting here at my computer?

Well, shortly after I put our dishes on the counter to be washed, the Baking Bug bit me.  Yup.  So, in an effort to be a good little tester, I wandered over to my computer to see if there were any baked goods in need of testing.  To my ineffable delight, it seems the Baking Bug bit Dynise, too, because a chocolate cake recipe was sitting there, newly added, waiting for its first test.  I was more than happy to oblige.

Just before going into the oven.  I couldn't escape how closely the batter resembled fudge.  I really just wanted to eat the batter, so I stuffed this pan into the oven and just focused on licking the mixing bowl and spatula clean.  Score another win for vegan baking: No need to worry about salmonella when there are no raw eggs in your batter.

It actually started smelling amazing before I'd even finished mixing all of the components together, due to a patently killer technique used in prep.  Have I mentioned YOU ALL NEED TO GET THIS BOOK?  You do.

Here is my fudgy-wudgy but surprisingly fluffy and light piece of Funeral Cake.  Despite the slightly morbid name, it's just the best chocolate cake I've ever made.  Perfectly moist, the right amount of squishy, not too sweet (which surprised me, considering how much sugar is in there), and with those great little crumbs that you can squish with the back of your fork so you get every last morsel.  I could eat this cake until I got a bellyache.  I definitely see why this rich, dark chocolate cake would be comforting to mourners.

Well...those dishes aren't going to do themselves, and I can't leave them for Mister every night... can I?