Yummy Things That I Have Made

Okay, that’s it – I’m officially retiring the whole “I just moved to a new city and started a new job and therefore have no time to blog!!1!111!” excuse. I mean, I’ve been here for a good two and a half months, for crying out loud!  Now that I’m all settled into my new life, I’ve been doing lots more baking and cooking than I was at first. So I hereby promise to post more regularly from this point forward.

…and now let me show you a few photos with minimal text. What? I’ve had a busy weekend, by which I mean I went ice skating for the first time in some fifteen years in a misguided attempt to replicate all the fantastic feats of athleticism seen in the Olympics. Yeah… fail. I ain’t no Apolo Anton Ohno. Anyway, these are some photos that’ve been hibernating in my iPhoto for a while now, so I’m going to show them a little bit o’ love. Totally less than they deserve, but c’est la vie.

Peanutty, eggplanty goodness.

A while back, I bought an eggplant and wanted to do something exciting and new with it. As any self-respecting vegan would do, I headed over to the PPK in search of inspiration. Inspiration came in the form of an intriguing recipe for Spicy Peanut Eggplant and Shallot Stew, a combination of ingredients too bizarre to pass up. Despite the fact that I had no shallots, peanut oil, roasted diced tomatoes, fresh ginger, chilis, green beans, or cilantro, the recipe was very forgiving – I replaced the green beans with peas and improvised for the other missing ingredient, and the results were surprisingly tasty. I still have a serving of this in the freezer, waiting to be brought to work for a yummy lunch one day soon. Two thumbs up!

Samosas... and beyond!

There’s a lot going on here. Let me draw your attention to the foreground – those are some damn tasty Potato-Edamame Samosas from VWaV. I whipped up those beauties for a Super Bowl party a co-worker held, and they were well-received by everyone except her two-year-old, who took one bite and immediately spat it into his hand before dumping the soggy samosa-bit onto a plate. I learned that he later developed a fondness for the samosas and actually enjoyed them – score! Anyway, this is a really excellent recipe. The samosa filling has a great blend of flavors, and I had so much of it left over that I ate it straight-up, as you can see in the photo. This huge dinner featured samosa filling, actual samosas, baby carrots, and roasted cauliflower with so-called Indian Barbecue Sauce. Nom to the zillionth power!

Check out those exposed apple bits! Shocking!

Last but not least, check out this amazing Apple Pie-Crumb Cake Muffin, also from VWaV. I don’t think you can tell from the photo, but this is one giant muffin – for Christmas I got one of those tins that makes 6 big ol’ muffins, and this was my first time using it. Oh my gosh, guys – these muffins are absolutely spectacular. They’re moist and amazingly flavorful, even though I used plain ol’ apple juice instead of apple cider. I also replaced some of the oil with applesauce to cut down a bit on the fat content. And even though I used some seriously old and mealy apples in these guys, they were seriously delicious.

Aaand that concludes my sad little return to srs blogging. Coming soon: a post filled with the fruits of rampant consumerism. Ooer.

Macros and Medjools

Did you ever read Highlights magazine when you were a kid? I’m pretty sure I had a subscription to it for a few years… and it was almost always included in that ubiquitous stack of dog-eared, food-smeared magazines at the pediatrician’s office. I always loved that section at the end where they included a picture taken with a macro lens and you had to guess what object it was. It was usually something like a pencil or a flower, but the focus on some small part of it always made it seem otherworldly and mysterious, and I thought that was so darn cool.

Anyway, I had a bit of Highlights nostalgia while attempting to photograph my dessert last night. See, the thing is, as delicious as Medjool dates are, they just don’t photograph well. It’s probably because dates are inherently funny looking, but slicing ‘em open, filling their cavities with peanut butter and dark chocolate, and then microwaving the heck outta those suckers doesn’t really do anything for their aesthetics. So I present to you a somewhat mind-boggling photo of one of the most delicious and easy desserts known to womankind.

Medjool madness!

Okay, maybe they’re not so freakish looking, but I bet that non-food bloggers would be all, “What the heck is that?!” when presented with this photo. Lucky for us foodie folk, we’re mostly familiar with the wonder that is the candy-like Medjool date. I seriously consider these guys to be Mama Nature’s gift to our tastebuds… they’re just so soft and sweet and gorram delicious. Adding peanut butter and chocolate takes things over the edge, especially if you heat the mess ’til the dates start to smell like they’re caramelizing and the chocolate is gooey and the whole thing is just heavenly.

All I need is a new camera and a macro lens and then I can fill my blog with even more photos of my Medjool lovelies… up close and personal.