Why can't I post things in a timely manner?

This is basically going to be just a hodge-podge of food porn. I've been on yet another cooking spree, and I've saved a big pile of photographic goodness to share with the world.

First up, we have last week's cupcake. I took a break from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and instead made the Coconut Heaven Cupcakes from Vegan With a Vengeance in honor of my mom's visit (Mom's a coconut lover, just like me...or probably I'm one just like her. Whatever the case, we do love our fattening fruit). Anyhoo, this one was yet another crowd pleaser. They're very dense, though, so watch out if you're expecting a fluffy crumb. It's a good kind of dense, though, a nice counterbalance to the rich thick frosting. Oh, God, the frosting. I should just make the icing recipes from Isa's books and eat them with a spoon. I would be seriously prediabetic, but happy at the same time.

Next, we have my breakfast obsession from last week. I was mad for hot morning food there for a bit, so I made multigrain pecan waffles one morning, and an onion mushroom scramble with hash browns and tempeh bacon the next. The scramble was pretty darned ugly, as you can see, and the hash browns were fun (cooked them on a waffle iron, as suggested by Tami at her mouth-watering blog Vegan Appetite). The tempeh bacon was my first attempt at fake pork meat, and while I liked the flavor, I missed the nice crispy texture. I liked the tofu bacon I cribbed from a random internet search much better (sorry, no pics of that). Those waffles are the king, though; I'm going to try veganizing the recipe, just for kicks and giggles, and then I'll post my findings here. Finally, the slowly withering apples on my counter found their way into some Apple Pie - Crumb Cake Muffins. Those were some kind of magical, like a dessert in your hand with suprisingly little added sugar. I would definitely recommend just baking these in the tin, though; those muffin cup liners would not come off the finished product, and I lost much valuable crumb in a valiant attempt to extract them.

After that: pizza. Not just any pizza, either - bacon cheeseburger pizza. This consisted of a nice crispy store bought dough crust, some fake beef seitan, cheddar, onions, tomatoes, and bac'n bits. Baked, covered with lettuce and lashed with ketchup and mustard, it was a craving on a plate. I loved this stuff. I will make it forever. Except next time I'll just crumble the seitan with my fingers instead of running it through my KitchenAid meat grinder attachment. It made neat hamburger crumbles to begin with, but those promptly disintegrated when I tried to brown them.

Why don't I weigh three hundred pounds, you ask? That is a mystery for the ages.

Big Catch-Up Post

It's funny how quickly life can happen. A few days can change your whole world view, I tells ya.

So here's the biggie: a few posts back I blogged about taking a possible "veggie challenge," i.e., going for a week with no meat. Well, since then I've had a massive psychic flush and I've decided to extend my veggie challenge to last for the foreseeable future. Yes, I've joined the vegetarian camp as of August 1st, and so far I'm liking it here.

In consequence, I've taken down my one post that dealt with meat because looking at it made me kind of sick. Since I'm still eating dairy products, my other stuff is still relevant. And my vegan cupcake shots are, of course, always animal friendly.

Speaking of vegan cupcakes, this week's experiment was the Lychee Cupcake with Coconut Glaze. Here's one in all its pastel glory, just to the right.Isn't it pretty? For some reason I keep thinking "wedding favor" when I see this shot. Anyway, the sad thing is that it looks better than it tastes. Maybe I shouldn't have done my normal low-fat, lower-cal mod on this one, but I think the problem is really the lychee, not applesauce or agave nectar. The fruit doesn't really come out in the flavor, and the crumb itself is kind of bland. Not bad, but not anything I'd make again. The coconut glaze, however, lives up to the promises all of the other VCTOTW icings have made. I'm looking forward to trying it on banana cupcakes at a later date.

I've also continued my seitan experimentation. I tried Isa's boiled recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance a few weeks ago, and since then I've also done the Seitan O'Greatness that has taken the veggie world by storm. For Isa's I liked the taste but wanted a different texture. O'Greatness had a nice bite, but still quite what I was looking for (and the spice combo didn't really do it for me, either).

Then I FINALLY stumbled across Julie Hasson's seitan sausage recipe. It was just right: tender, but still engaging. I thank the twin tricks of adding chickpea flour to the seitan mix, and then steaming the works. I wrapped the dough in cheesecloth and made it in my rice steamer with the following results:fresh from the steamer;

unwrapped, chilled, and sliced.

The next night, it was thinly sliced, dusted with Penzey's Greek seasoning blend and a pinch of cayenne, and pan-seared in Old Reliable, aka my cast iron skillet. With feta dressing and some pita, it was glorious. I rounded out my dinner with a Greek salad, too (that was dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and some oregano). Fast and yummy.


My apologies to any vegan readers out there; I know that pile of cheese must be stomach-churning. But cut a new veggie some slack - I can't get rid of all my vices at once.

Next up - tempeh bacon! I kind of miss bacon. I have high hopes for this.

Summer Garden Bust

I know, I know: all this food is fine and dandy, Kate, but where are the frickin' plants? The answer is that my frickin' plants have been slowly succumbing to all the summer gardening blights that Florida can offer: cucumber beetles, bacterial wilt, drought, monsoon, crippling ninety degree heat mixed with ninety percent humidity, etc, etc, etc. All of my cucurbits keeled over and died a few weeks ago, leaving my nightshades and luffa all alone. And the nightshades are growing so tortuously slowly that it's all I can do not to scream with frustration every time I water. I've all but given up on my Silvery Fir Tree tomato; it's grown about six inches since it was planted, and I doubt it will ever set fruit. Ditto my bull nose peppers. I blame the weather, but maybe I just need to fertilize more. Hmmm...I'll have to hit 'em with some fish emulsion later today.

I do still have a few little ones that have made it against the odds, though:

Brown Turkey figs:
Genovese Basil and Lemon Thyme:
Luffa:

A blossom on my Key Lime tree:
And (one of my few indoor cuties) a pitcher on my moneky cup pitcher plant:
I didn't even take pictures of my peppers or tomato, and my eggplant pic is beyond pathetic, so I didn't post it here (if you're dying to point and laugh, click on my flickr link below).

I should have learned my lesson last year: except for a few plants, like luffa or okra, summer gardening is just stupid in Florida. But once again, I was seduced by sunshine and the dream of garden fresh tomatoes. ~Sigh~ I guess I'll just start dreaming of October now...