Reader Request: Food Processor Advice & Suggestions!

I derive satisfaction from the things I don’t have. More specifically, I like finding ways around my non-ownership of various small appliances – I enjoy thinking up alternate methods of accomplishing whatever said small appliance is meant to do. And, fine, I also enjoy feeling proud of myself for owning fewer things. My thought process when trying to MacGyver my way around the kitchen usually goes something like this:

Microwave? Pah! I can reheat everything in the oven. Double boiler? Pshaw! I can melt chocolate just fine by putting it in a small metal bowl and then floating that in a small pan of boiling water. Food processor? As if! My blender works just… fine… oh… nope… it’s cool if a creamy sauce is actually chunky, right?

…yeahhh. That one was definitely more of a MacGruber situation. So, after one too many failed attempts to use my blender as a food processor, I’m biting the proverbial bullet and buying one. It’ll be an early birthday present to myself – what else could a nearly-25-year-old possibly want for her quarter-century celebration?!

But here’s the thing. I don’t know which one to buy! So I need your help, you wonderful, knowledgeable kitchen goddesses and gods. Tell me what food processor you use and if you’d recommend it! Alternatively, tell me which processor you covet. I don’t mind spending a decent chunk o’ change, because this’ll be an investment with many delicious, delicious returns.

Thanks for your help! To demonstrate my gratitude, here’s a picture of Moria covered in Star Wars Legos:

Oh hey, I'm just sleepin' with the Falcon on top of me...

Cranberry Streusel Bars, or, Sorry I Left You in the Fridge for Months, Cranberries

I’m a sucker for anything seasonal. Come fall, my pantry quickly becomes home to an eyebrow-raising amount of canned pumpkin, ready for breads and muffins and – obviously – pies. During the holiday season, I compulsively buy various nogs, even the coconut-based one I know I probably won’t care for, just because it’s a nog, for heaven’s sake, and you can only get it around the holidays!1!!!1!!11! Predictably, though, my burning love for whatever seasonal specialty caught my fancy wanes fairly quickly, replaced by the Next Big Thing, and soon I forget that pumpkin even exists and that I like it very much.

That temporary consumerist love of seasonal eats reared its embarrassing head when I discovered a sad little pint of cranberries languishing in my fridge two weeks ago. The cranberries were a  forgotten holdover from November, when I eagerly stocked up on the local, organic berries when they were on sale at the co-op. Two months later, this unused pint was surprisingly intact. A few berries showed signs of their age – a little bit squishy, not plump and taut like their peers – but overall, they were in good shape. What to do with these poor neglected berries?

Sweet, tart little rectangles.

Make a Saturday night snack, that’s what. Eager for another opportunity to bake from Vegan Desserts: Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season, I was delighted to find a cranberry-reliant recipe appropriately located in the Autumn section of the book. These bars are a happy meeting of tart and sweet, each bite featuring tangy cranberries and the sugary streusel topping. S and I both adored them, and I’ve already shortlisted them for my Thanksgiving desserts next year. But with any luck, I’ll make them again before next November – who knows; there might just be another forgotten pint of berries in my fridge right now.

Do you fall prey to seasonal purchasing binges? What’s your favorite cranberry recipe?

Christmas: Sweet Edition

Lest you think we ate nothing but savory foods at our Christmas celebration, let me show you all the sweet, sugary delights we consumed. Technically these aren’t all of them, because I didn’t photograph the oodles of beautiful and undoubtedly delicious non-vegan desserts my aunt shared. But I don’t think you’ll miss them when you see all the sweets we shared!

First up, the traditional Christmas morning cinnamon bun + grapefruit breakfast. Like the past few years, Mama followed the glorious unhealthy-but-delicious VeganYumYum recipe for our cinnamon rolls. This time, I snapped some shots of her baking process, including the super-awesome trick of cutting the giant cinnamon log with dental floss:

Log o' dough.

Look at the perfectly clean slices!

Amazing!

And check out how lovely they look, all nestled up to one another pre-baking.

All rolled up.

And the finished product, covered in an oozy, sweet icing, is equally appealing.

Ready for eatin'.

As usual, I could barely finish one of these buns with breakfast – I had to save the rest for later, when I needed some post-present-opening refueling.

Rest assured, cinnamon buns weren’t the extend of our sweet treats. For dessert proper, Mum made an amazing chocolate-orange mousse pie, a rich, creamy confection with the perfect blend of chocolate and citrus.

I would like to eat a slice right now.

Even though I didn’t make this pie, I think I contributed to its deliciousness by cluing my mom in to silken tofu – apparently, the last time she made it she used regular soft tofu. This time around, I set her straight, to marvelously smooth and creamy results.

Although I can’t claim the pie as my own creation, I did contribute my fair share to the dessert table. Because Christmas isn’t Christmas without cookies, I whipped up some Five-Spice Snaps from Hannah Kaminsky’s Vegan Desserts: Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season and some Peppermint Mocha Roll Cookies from Scissors and Spice.

A variety of nibbles.

Both of these cookies were excellent. The snaps were just a touch more sophisticated than your typical gingersnap, with a mellower yet more nuanced flavor. And the peppermint mocha roll cookies were the perfect yuletide delicacy, chocolaty and minty with a tiny kick of caffeine and just the right amount of chewiness.

I also made a sort of gingerbread cake, but it came out a little dry and not terribly gingerbread-y. I totally forgot to photograph it, but no matter – it was pretty forgettable; I don’t even recall where I found the recipe.

All in all, I’d say we had a pretty damn tasty Christmas, wouldn’t you? What are your favorite holiday desserts? And do you have a no-fail gingerbread recipe I could borrow?

Christmas: Savory Edition

After S and I spent five glorious days tooling around Maryland and eating delicious foodz, I took a super-cheap, super-fast Southwest flight up to Rhode Island to spend Christmas proper with my family. I had three pre-Christmas days to spend with my family and friends, and I spent a healthy amount of that time helping to plan Christmas dinner (and dessert, duh). I’m always grateful that my parents usually host holidays at their house, because it means that we can limit the amount of meat that’s served. Of course, this doesn’t always work out as expected – last year, due to some miscommunications and mis…understandings… we only had one vegan main dish instead of the smorgasbord of vegan delights I’d imagined. Live and learn.

This year, our vegan options were plentiful. In fact, except for a giant pot o’ meat my grandmother brought, all of our main dinner was vegan. Hellz yeah. Mom decided to serve a casual three-course dinner – we served the salad and soup courses while the family was socializing, so they could eat and chat wherever they were most comfortable. We then all sat down at the table[s] for the main course. I liked this approach – it was comfortable and casual, yet structured. And it allowed the fish-eaters to munch sushi as a sort of pre-salad first course without the vegheads in the mix feeling left out; we were busy preparing the salad and soup bowls.

Anyway, enough backstory – to the food!

The kale domination continues!

Instead of serving a regular ol’ lettuce-based salad, Mum decided we should serve kale salad. I was a little dubious – I didn’t want our omni guests to roll their eyes and comment on “that weird stuff vegans eat,” but I wasn’t giving the kale (and Mom!) enough credit. Mom bought a package of baby kale, something I’d never seen before, and I made a simple salad – kale, carrots, and tomatoes tossed in a double batch of Angela’s amazing Lightened Up Tahini-Lemon Dressing. So good! And everyone seemed to enjoy it. My uncle was particularly vocal about it, praising the kale’s crisp crunchiness. Success!

Butternut love.

Next, we served a Spiced Squash Bisque, made by mi madre. As you can see, it was still a little chunky, and not pureed into a true bisque. She used a hot curry powder instead of the milder recommended spices, rendering our soup a bit spicy and very tasty. While I enjoyed the gentle kick of heat, I know Grammy wasn’t so fond of it!

Ze main meal.

Mum also prepared most of our main meal. She put together a really tasty Green Bean and Wild Mushroom Saute, along with a scrumptious Wild Rice Pilaf with Butternut Squash and Dried Cranberries. The pilaf had a bit of curry in it, making it a great companion piece to the soup. Both of these dishes were delicious, and we almost didn’t need the meat analogue Mom had picked up for the vegetarians among us - Gardein Savory Stuffed Turk’y.

A plate of yum.

I’d never tried this particular Gardein variety, but I had high hopes – I’m a big fan of Gardein; their products are great in a time crunch. The turk’y was no exception. Each piece was small, but filling, and stuffed with a yummy cranberry-based stuffing. I was glad I shared my piece with my brother, because I was already so full from the soup and salad courses that I could barely finish my plate o’ real food! But finish it I did, and of course I also left room for dessert. More about that in another post.

How was your holiday? Did you enjoy a mostly-vegan meal?

Vegan Eats in Maryland and DC: Part II

Hello, all! Happy 2012. I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season and that you welcomed 2012 with some awesome people – I sure did. I’ll recap my very vegan Christmas soon, but first I have to finish blabbering about all the delicious food S and I ate in Maryland! In Part I, I talked about Great Sage, Sticky Fingers Bakery, and Pho 14. Now to the rest of our eats!

Liquid Earth in Baltimore, MD

Besides hanging out in the Columbia area and visiting DC, S and I also spent a day in Baltimore. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend the American Visionary Art Museum - I’m generally pretty ambivalent about contemporary art (okay, that’s generous… I’m usually not too fond of it!), but I truly enjoyed the amazingly creative and fun works at AVAM. I also appreciated their definition of visionary art: “…art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.” It’s so inspiring to see how people from around the world feel the call to creativity and subsequently produce beautiful, thought-provoking art.

But that’s a total digression, because I’m supposed to be talking about food. Our first meal in Baltimore was at Liquid Earth after a morning of wandering around AVAM. Boasting an impressive juice and smoothie menu, Liquid Earth feels a bit like your stereotypical veg restaurant – cozy, with eclectic decor and inked-and-pierced servers – my kind of people! S ordered (and really enjoyed) the Filly Cheese Phake, which substitutes tofu for steak. I didn’t try it because it includes provolone cheese, so I’ll have to trust his review. I lunched on their T.L.T., which featured a house-made organic “bacon.” The sandwich was not really anything to write home about, but that was exactly what I was craving: something simple, tasty, and filling that reminded me of my beloved BLT sandwiches of yore. I also got an Original Strawberry Smoothie, which was sadly disappointing. It’s hard to imagine that you can go wrong with strawberries, bananas, soy milk, and ice, but it seemed as if ice was the main ingredient in my smoothie, rendering it bland and lackluster. However, S’s Ginger Zinger juice totally made up for my drab drink. A simple mixture of Granny Smith apples and copious amounts of ginger, this was unlike anything I’ve ever tasted (yes, my juice experiences are limited). S and I both loved it – it was zesty and spicy and totally, totally delicious. I wish I had a picture of it and its beautiful green hue!

One World Cafe in Baltimore, MD

After an afternoon at the National Aquarium,* S and I met up with his mom and one of his college friends for dinner. We headed to One World Cafe, where I was delighted to discover that it was Taco Tuesday! $5.50 for two tacos and a side of spicy rice? Yes, please! Sometimes a girl craves tacos; what can I say. One World Cafe offers a vegetarian menu with many vegan options, and they happily substituted Daiya cheese for the dairy cheese on my dish. The tacos were exactly what I wanted – simple and spicy, with all the fixings.

Tacotastic!

My dining companions enjoyed lasagna and macaroni and cheese, so I can’t speak to those dishes, but their reviews were quite positive. Our meals filled us up and gave us the energy to navigate the crowds on 34th street in Hampden to see the houses all decked out in their Christmas light finest. As S’s mom put it, “Tacky but beautiful.”

Busboys & Poets in Hyattsville, MD

I’m a little conflicted about admitting that one of the most pleasant dining experiences we shared on the trip took place in a four-location chain restaurant. But, in the interest of honesty, I’ll say it – Busboys & Poets is a very cool establishment. Although they try perhaps a little too hard to make the decor seem very hip and artsy, the overall ambiance of this place is definitely my style. The menu features meat but is very veg-friendly, with lots of vegan options that go beyond the ubiquitous portobello mushroom sandwich that most restaurants seem to think meets their veg quota. S and I started out with the Coconut Tofu Bites as an appetizer.

Coconutty and crispy.

Oh my goodness. These were so, so tasty. These bite-sized morsels of creamy, melt-in-your-mouth bits of tofu were encrusted with crispy, fried coconut and dipped in a sweet plum sauce with hints of pineapple. The combination of flavors was just perfect, even for someone like me who is generally wary of sweet dinner items. I’m sure these are terribly unhealthy, but for a rare indulgence, it really couldn’t get much more delicious. And I’m so impressed that a mainstream restaurant did something so very creative with tofu – this little dish would not be out of place at an upscale all-vegan restaurant, yet it’s on the menu at an establishment that also features meat. I really appreciate that creativity in a restaurant!

For our main meals, S and I both ordered the Veggie Burger, a “homemade vegetarian burger with sprouts, avocado, tomato on wheat bun.” It did not disappoint.

A bit of an indulgence, but totally worth it.

Can you see how big and plump that burger is? It was just bursting with vegetables, beans, and lentils – the perfect veggie burger! I loved that it was topped with avocado, too – I need to remember to incorporate that wonderful green fruit into more of my burger-eating experiences. With a side of sweet potato fries, this was a really tasty (and filling – I only ate half!) meal, and I rounded it off with a soy cappuccino – the perfect end to the Maryland portion of my holiday vacation.

So there you have it – all my Maryland eats! I’m drooling just thinking about those coconutty tofu bites.

What’s the most creative vegan dish you’ve had in a mainstream restaurant?

*My views on aquariums are similar to my views on zoos (shared at the end of this post).