easy as pie

earlier today i decided to make cookies. or more scones. but i lost the will before i pulled the ingredients down from the cupboards.

ten minutes later i started thinking about this delicious pie i always get before and after i go to the doctor. and then discovered the place i get it closed. and then had to make berry pie.

i didn't have any berries, but i searched the freezer and borrowed some from my roommate, who was surprised i was making pie since i didn't have the energy to make cookies. but pie is way easier than cookies.

seriously. it takes like 10 minutes to make a pie, then you just have to wait for it to bake. and cool.

here it is:

crust:

1 3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 c olive oil

1 t salt

3 T ice-cold water

take more than half of it and roll it out between two sheets of parchment or wax paper, then throw it in a pie plate.

filling:

1 bag of frozen berries (mixed is my favorite, i had strawberries today, and some cranberries)

3 T sugar (depends on how sweet the berries are. use less than you think you need.)

3 T arrowroot powder or cornstarch or something similar.

mix it all together - with the berries still frozen - and put in the pie crust, and top.

bake for like 45 minutes or so... take it out before the crust browns. let it cool for awhile or it'll be way too runny.

if it's not sweet enough, serve with buttery bourbon sauce and soy dream (if you didn't eat it all earlier in the week...)

i forgot to take a picture before i smashed through the crust to taste it. it was prettier, i swear.

grapefruit scones!

nothing lightens the winter mood than baking and cooking with citrus.

mix:

1 1/4 c soymilk

1 T grapefruit juice

separately mix:

3 c whole wheat flour

3 T raw cane sugar

2 T baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/3 c olive oil

zest from 2 grapefruit

mix together, break into 2 parts and flatten a bit, then cut each in six pieces like pie.

bake 15 minutes or so at 350

now the genius:

the glaze.

unfortunately, i haven't quite perfected it. i mean, powdered sugar is on my sister's poison list - you may've noticed the scone recipe uses whole wheat flour and a small bit of cane flour and olive oil instead of... well, every other oil that is bad for you. i aspire to make glaze using just cane sugar and grapefruit juice. but i didn't have time to mess around today - it's a stressful week. there's an election on tuesday.

so some day i'll melt the sugar and then add the grapefruit juice and make a better glaze. but today i used earth balance and powdered sugar and grapefruit juice, and it's heavenly.

lentil soup

a few months ago one of my go-to lunch spots around the corner from work - which i simply called "the falafel place" - shut down. it reopened almost immediately as... a falafel place. (the old owner sold it so he could focus on soccer full time. or something. i don't quite remember.)

the new falafel place does a couple things better - they have wheat bread, for one. and pickles for falafel sandwiches, which is not standard but which i love.

the down side is their lentil soup isn't as delicious, and you get less for more money.

no problem though - last summer when i was working out of a different office and craving my stand-by lentil soup, i tried making it myself. it was easier than i thought - i actually overspiced it the first time or two, and now i've got it down to a science. the key is salt.

1. chop half an onion, throw it into a pot with about a tablespoon of olive oil, cook until tender.

2. add about a tablespoon or two of whole cumin seeds* that you've pummeled with your mortar and pestle and stir until fragrant, then

3. add a cup of red lentils and about 5 cups water.

4. cook until lentils are soft - less than 20 minutes.

5. add about a teaspoon of salt (to taste) and a quarter cup of lemon juice (to taste).

blending is optional. a little blending is nice.

* you can also add a little fenugreek, parsley, or turmeric. no more than 1/4 t of the fenugreek or turmeric, i'd say. and the cumin is the key ingredient, so make sure you've got plenty.

this pic is unfortunately of the less delicious new-falafel-place soup. it's not horible, it just makes me want to cook my own lentil soup.

the nice thing about this soup is that i almost always have all the ingredients in my cupboard/refrigerator, and it doesn't call for vegetable broth, which makes me feel good.

ice cream

sometimes you don't want to cook but you do want to curl up in bed and watch really bad television.

this is when you need buttery bourbon sauce and vanilla soy dream.

together, they totally make soup.

buttery bourbon sauce:

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c earth balance buttery sticks

1/4 of soy milk

bourbon.

melt the buttery sticks and sugar in a pan until it's blended. add the soy milk. then add bourbon to taste. i prefer at least 1/4 cup, but some people think that's overdoing it.

a batch lasts me awhile because i generally don't crave sweets, so i keep it in a jar in the fridge, and a carton of soy dream in the freezer, for emergencies.

i recommend just pouring the sauce into the carton.

i was going to make dal makhani

i was following the recipe to the best of my ability:

2.5 ounces of dried black dal i didn't have, so i used green lentils.

i boiled them until done with a big thing of ginger.

then i started reading the recipe, which called for a little cumin and a little garam masala. boring! plus it called for cream - and i don't use cream.

so. i had the lentils, i added 1/2 a can of kidney beans like it said, and then i took the leftover onion sitting on my cutting board, only partially chopped, and threw it into a saucepan with a tiny bit of oil, added some garlic, and when it was almost done cooking i threw in a bunch of this spice mix a friend gave me 2 years ago and i have no idea what it is. salty though. and has cinnamon and some kind of chili powder, for sure, but who knows what else. and i added it to the simmering beans with a tomato i had.

served over coconut rice i made last week (just brown rice cooked with coconut milk.)

then i put some of the lime creme i'm going to talk about in my other post of the day - which was freaking fantastic. way better than expected. probably even better than my actual dinner. it's just cilantro, lime juice, and yogurt, which added tartness and cilantro and cool soothing awesomeness.

kasha sauerkraut stew

three years ago, when my then-vegan sister bought me a copy of "vegan with a vengeance" for christmas, i thought i'd found heaven, and that isa was an angel sent to save us all. i mean, here it was - delicious food that happened to be vegan, instead of the then-typical recipes for "meat"loaf and "cheeze" and... other not-food grossness.

but now i'm just tired of the entire post-punk-kitchen vegan domination, and (with exceptions) my new attitude is to look at their recipes as jumping off points.

i tried the "kasha phyllo pie" from veganomicon a while back and was delighted with the filling - kasha and mushrooms, and then a middle layer of sauerkraut right from the jar. (sauerkraut is my favorite vegetable.*) but i had to wonder - why anyone would ruin such a good stew by putting it in a phyllo crust? the flakiness of the crust conflicted with the heartiness of the filling. not to mention the clashing flavors. and, the filling slid out. (i think a buckwheat pie crust may've been there.)

anyway, tonight i started with a plan to make it soup. after a long day and the knowledge of an even earlier day tomorrow - *saturday* - (and after realizing after two hours of being a bit chilly that the heat was off and it was 59 degrees in my apartment)... i decided i needed some soup.

halfway through i remembered i don't like mushrooms floating around in soup, and so i kept it thicker - i was thinking more like a stew, but kasha is almost a grain so it's more like a pilaf. and, it's delicious.

so.

1. cook an onion and a stalk of celery and a carrot in some olive oil until they brown a bit (in retrospect i would've added more carrot). add a ton of cremini mushrooms and cook until they lose their moisture.

2. add a couple teaspoons of caraway and a teaspoon of coriander and about a cup and a half of kasha and mix it around real good for a couple minutes

3. then add your liquid - i added about three cups of water and one bouillon cube (but if i had to do it over i'd throw in a half cup of dark flavorful microbrew or a red wine) and the kasha soaked it up in a flash. in fact, i almost burned it because i started writing about it before it was done cooking. i never looked to see how quickly kasha cooks. turns out, it's fast.

4. add some black pepper, and throw in about half a jar of STRAINED sauerkraut - i can't emphasize enough - the secret of good sauerkraut is controlling the acidity - the amount of liquid you let in the final recipe! too much liquid and it's gross. but, if you wash it off it doesn't have that delicious kick.

alright, i've gotta go read some tolstoy before i lose this warm russia-loving mood!

* we put together a cookbook of my grandmother's recipes about a decade ago, and the first four recipes in the "vegetables" section were all sauerkraut. and although i do love sauerkraut at least five times more than the average person, it's not my favorite vegetable. i actually can't remember what my favorite vegetable is. i'll figure it out some day.

it's just salad.

my problem with making and therefore eating salad is that it's not actually cooking - what's the fun of chopping up vegetables if when you're done chopping them you're done cooking?

anyway, someone who had mcdonalds for lunch saw me open this salad and turned up their nose at it.

fresh carrots and tomato and spinach! what could be more delicious! the whole thing made me miss my sister.