Happy July! Let's bake!

It's safe to say that most people in the Northern Hemisphere anticipate sweating to be involved in welcoming July.  The only sweating in my house was the condensation on the water glass I left beside the oven while I baked last night.

Despite at least one week of 90+ degree days wishing June a fond farewell, July swept in quietly on the gentle breeze of a 60ish degree Midnight.  It was approximately then that Mister and I greeted the new month with Blueberry Ginger Spelt Muffins from Vegan Brunch.

If you live in Philadelphia, you may have recently observed that blueberries are taking over the world.  I might have mentioned in passing that I got a great deal on some blueberries last week when I was shopping: 2 lbs for $5.  That is a serious bargain when you consider that only one short month ago, you could pay $5 for a pint.  Blueberries are serious business when you live this close to New Jersey (so are tomatoes and corn, but those are more successful...a month from now).  I was so excited about the bargain I was getting, as well as enthralled by how perfectly ripe, sweet, and huge the berries are right now, it didn't even occur to me how much I would have to increase my blueberry consumption in order to eat my bounty before it spoiled.

Enter Baking With Blueberries.

I'm not the only one doing it, either - even though she must know, in her heart of hearts, that baking in July makes very little sense, Dynise was also bewildered by the blueberry monster and whipped up a batch of muffins from VwaV.  I had just about flipped a coin to decide which recipe to make, so I'll be following her lead as soon as I get my hands on a lemon and some more vanilla soygurt.

a bun in the oven

Did I give you a heart attack, Mom?

No buns in my figurative "oven" - let me get that out of the way immediately.

I made my first ever vegan biscuits and I'm still high off of how well they came out. I ended up doing a kind of hybrid between Isa's Herbed Whole Wheat Biscuits from Vegan Brunch and Sarah's Easy Biscuits from How It All Vegan. By the way, I still think that is one of the most clever names for a book ever. There were three things about this recipe that amazed me:

1. watching the cider vinegar turn soymilk into buttermilk was simultaneously awesome and stomach-turning.

2. with just the right amount of ingredients, a dough formed and separated itself from the bowl, as well as the spatula, quite easily!

3. they really, really tasted like (whole wheat) buttermilk biscuits! It blew my mind. They were fun looking, don't get me wrong, but I really did not expect them to be this good - perfectly crisp and crunchy on the outside and light, puffy, and soft inside.
They kind of look like rocks, since they were drop biscuits, not cut. When I broke my first one open, there was a fabulous little puff of steam...mmm....so good. Another neat thing was that it seemed like the whole wheat flour made the biscuits a little sweeter, even though there was no sweetener - just thyme. By the way - I don't know if I just got lucky with my whole wheat flour, but it's very hard to sift because flakes of wheat stay on top of the little grindy-wheels. Irritating, but wholesome, I guess.

Anyway, I served my happy little biscuits with chunky, steamy, savory bowls of French Lentil Soup with Thyme and Tarragon from Veganomicon.
I still love this soup! It smells so good while it's simmering, and the length of time it takes to simmer is about the length of time it takes me to babble about some mundane but amusing parts of my day to Mister, make biscuits, and clean up. If you'd like to read more of my raving about just how good this soup is, and how you should make it and eat it and never eat anything else ever again because there's just no need click here or here.

There was one thing that was different and special about tonight's making of this heavenly soup: I used up a sprig of genuine home-grown lemon thyme, given to me by my previously mentioned generous colleague. It added a neat flavor to the soup, though I must admit it didn't really stand out against the generous helping of tarragon (my new favorite herb) and the savory smokiness of Hungarian paprika. I could definitely taste the difference, though. Surprisingly, this was also my first time cooking with fresh thyme.

In case you were wondering, once I got absorbed in my chopping and sauteing and sifting and plopping, I was able to ignore the utter disaster that someone else might refer to as my living room. Hopefully, this will get fixed tomorrow, because I won't be able to live like this for very long...

two days, two dinners

Last night was a bit of a busy one - dinner came out slightly better than expected, but between cleaning up and then doing some housecleaning in order to take full advantage of trash night, I ran out of time to share my cooking adventures. So tonight you get a double dose of delightful dinners!

Last night I made Farro pasta with Sunshine Sauce. I enhanced our fun little meal with Isa's Tomato Rosemary Scones (from Vegan Brunch). They were soooooo good. Mister had three with dinner! They were super simple to make, too, as scones go. I have to admit - mine ended up being more in the likeness of drop biscuits because I don't have enough counter space to knead dough, so I just stirred it up really well (but not too much) in the bowl, and then put 12 scoops of the dough on baking sheets and tried to form them into something more interesting than blobs of orange dough.
The farro pasta was one of the gifts from my father-in-law and that (seemingly) long ago visit to DiBruno Bros. I've seen recipes for farro (the whole grain) but I've stayed away from it, primarily due to my impatience for slow-cooking grains. I believe I read that farro is the longest cooking grain and there were even recommendations of soaking it overnight. However, the package of farro-flour pasta said it only needed to cook for 6-8 minutes. I cooked it for 8 minutes and it was most definitely "al dente" if ever a pasta was! Anyway, I had been trying to think of a fun way to use this pasta since we got it and the package recommended a light sauce to let the farro's flavor shine through. I may have failed at the "light" part due to the overpowering amount of garlic I included (I amended the recipe below), but at least I was able to appreciate the texture of the pasta, if not the actual taste. The focal point of this recipe is the sauce, but I will give you the whole of our dinner (sorry for the crappy picture - we were too hungry to take pictures before dinner, so I just got a shot of the leftovers).

Farro Pasta with Sunshine Sauce
about 6 servings

Ingredients:
8 oz Farro pasta (spaghetti)
16 oz roasted yellow peppers
30 oz cannellini beans (two 15 oz cans), rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp garlic powder (originally 1 tsp, but that was really too much)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable broth

2 Tbsp olive oil
3 large cloves of garlic, pressed/minced
large head of broccoli, cut into florets

Cook pasta according to package directions.
Heat oil on medium heat in a large saute pan, add garlic and saute 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add broccoli and cook 3-5 minutes, until broccoli is a vibrant green and still crisp, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, combine cannellini beans, roasted yellow peppers, salt, and garlic powder in a food processor/blender; pour in vegetable broth in a steady stream while the food processor is running. Drain pasta and return to pot, stir in cooked broccoli. When sauce is completely combined and smooth, pour over pasta and broccoli and stir well to coat.

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Chapter (dinner) two
Tonight I made Black Bottom Pineapple Tofu with Coconut Cashew Rice from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy. This is a family favorite (well, Mister and me anyway, not so much Angst) and while it was cooking I had a few compliments on the delightful scent wafting into our living room. Okay, I'm really making our home sound better than it is - the only separation between our kitchen and living room is that the tile floor stops and the carpeting starts. We have had conversations from one end of the apartment to the other without raising our voices.

Anyway, enough about my itty bitty home - it has four walls (with no more holes) and the a/c works. I can't remember when I got the aforementioned cookbook, but this recipe was one of the first ones I tried and has endured to become a regular in whatever rotation we may have. I don't really have any stories - it's one of those recipes I've made so many times I'm only about one or two more times away from not needing the book. However, I will say this, and it is actually related to my mini-vent about our tight quarters.

When you don't have much space, you can't have big things. You also don't really want to accumulate more things, because you (we) barely have room for what you (we) already have. That being said, one of the very first things I am going to do when we DO have more room is get a huge saute pan. The one I have now is great, but it's not very big, so there isn't much room for the food to spread out. I have come to the conclusion that until I have a huge (hopefully All-Clad) stainless steel or copper saute pan, I will never have tofu with a black bottom. There just isn't enough space to allow the syrup to form...what ends up happening is more like brown-braised tofu. It tastes great, but I really feel like we're missing something by not having the black bottom...nevertheless, here is our tasty tofu dinner:

Coconut Cashew Rice (so good)
"black bottom" tofu with pineapple chunks, red bell pepper, and carrots
such a pretty dinner!