Canadian Cheeze Soup and Awards

I became a vegetarian around December of my sophomore year in high school.  I was 15 at the time and ate out a lot.  One of my favorite places was a local diner chain called Jim's.  This is the perfect place if you were a) too young to have any late night hangouts, b) drunk beyond belief and didn't want tacos, and c) the type to sit around drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes until the wee hours.

Jim's wasn't really known for it's food.  It was more an atmosphere thing.  In recent years, they completely revamped their menu and even opened up some coffee bars.  I haven't been since the days I was in a comedy troupe, but I kinda wanted to go back there.  Jim's is one of those nostalgic memories that makes me think of being young and stupid.  So I set out to recreate my favorite dish (besides the grilled cheese): Canadian cheese soup.

Canadian Cheeze Soup

First, I want to say that I have no frickin' idea if Canadians eat cheese soup or if this is a popular dish at all.  What I do know is that I loved it because it was creamy, cheesy, and filled with tender vegetables.  Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe today because I have to tweak one or two things.  But I can tell you that this took me back to San Antonio, TX and my young adulthood all the way.  Super thick and creamy.  Really delicious.  It's also low in fat, soy free, and can be easily made gluten free.  I plan to make it again soon because the temperature is finally, FINALLY dropping!  Yay!

 

salad and telera bread

Sticking with the Texas kick, I also made chicken fried seitan several weeks ago with white gravy.  I can't even remember the last time I've had that dish.  A local vegan restaurant had it on their menu for Father's Day.  However, they used this delicious mushroom-thyme gravy.  That's completely blasphemous to a Texan.  Haha.

chicken (or country) fried steak, white gravy, and mixed veg

I've been awarded a Versatile Blogger Award!  Yay!  So, with my shame face I gladly accept and thank Lacey for the award.  I also pledge to blog much more often (at least once a week). Anyway, I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about myself that you don't know and then I'll choose five seven people to give the versatile blogger award to!

1. I have scars on my face from a dog bite when I was 16.
2. I'm a board game fiend, but nobody likes to play me because I win most of the time!
3. With the exception of maybe two pairs, all of my shoes are Chuck Taylors or look-alikes.
4. I was born in England, but I've never left the country since moving here.
5. My first pet was a goldfish that I named Immortal.  It died three days later and I cried and cried and cried.
6. I think squirrels are the frackin devil!
7. My favorite author is Stephen King.

Versatile Bloggers (in no order)

Vegan Eats & Treats!- I love how Amey eats locally!  She also does extraordinary things like can food and packs her freezer full of homemade goodies.  And you should seriously check out the rainbow potluck she had recently!

Vegan Thyme- Kelly's food is always amazing.  I love how she veganizes things and can never make it through her blog without drooling.

The Vegan Mouse- I heart Kim so much.  She promised me one day we'd have a tea party and I'm seriously holding her up to it.  If you are looking for wonderful recipes and beautiful food, visit her blog!

Lazy Smurf- I love her blog because it reminds me of home.  I'm from San Anto, but I loved going to Austin whenever I could.  And this weird thing happened.  I left Texas right before the huge boom in vegan and vegetarian restaurants.  So now I have to live vicariously through blogs.

Seitan is My Motor- Mihl is a bread/dumpling/pastry genius!  I love to look at her blog.  She really inspires me to do fancy things that I would normally be afraid of.

Wing-It Vegan- River semi-recently returned to her original blog.  She is one of my favorite bloggers of all time because she is wickedly creative.  I first discovered her during VeganMoFo of 2008 where she did amazing Halloween themed things!

Cupcake Kitteh- I love Mandee's blog not only because she loves Scrubs as much as I do.  She also makes a mostly gluten free and soy free lifestyle look easy!

More to come soon...

Memorializing Memorial Day Weekend

Yesterday, I felt completely wretched all day so I want to offer my deepest apology to Sunny Anderson for my previous post. In all the times I've poked at tv personalities, I never imagined any of them would read it...and I was completely mortified. I just want to take this time to make it clear to anybody reading this blog that the tone is incredibly light hearted. I don't take myself too seriously and I damn sure don't hate anybody (except for one ex boyfriend, but that's a different story). Now, I feel a lot better saying that.

I hope everybody had an absolutely fantastic weekend! I know I did. Even though we didn't have a grill, it felt like a barbeque weekend. After we finished the leftovers from our Jamaican meal, we had some coconut rice to use up. So, I made an eggplant recipe that I saw on Grill It! last week. It's pretty amazing. I used one large American eggplant instead of the Japanese ones. I also salted my eggplant to take the bitterness out. This is not the best picture, but the flavor was on point and super simple. Note: if you don't want to make a garlic paste, I suggest grating the garlic on a microplane...which is what I did.

Grilled Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and Mint
BY BOBBY FLAY (recipe originally found here)

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
4 Asian eggplants, halved lengthwise
Vegetable oil
Chopped fresh mint or cilantro leaves

Directions
Make a paste by smashing the garlic with a little salt and add to a small bowl. Whisk in the vinegar, soy, sesame oil, and red chili flakes.

Heat grill to high. Brush eggplant with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until slightly charred and just cooked through. Slice each half into 1/2-inch slices and place on a platter. Drizzle with the vinegar mixture and sprinkle with mint or cilantro.

Yesterday I made a sorta combination of the jackfruit carnitas and Vcon's baja tempeh tacos. I used jackfruit but flavored it with beer, olive oil, ancho chili powder, onions, garlic, cumin, and salt. I cooked it in the oven on 375 for about an hour and a half, adding more beer as the liquid was absorbed. I also made some more of Eddie G's tortillas, Isa's spicy pinto sausages, and Ani Phyo's red pepper corn salsa (substituted orange pepper and salted to taste). Served everything up with plenty of fresh avocado and beer. It was delicious.

Aaaaand...now I'm back to the rawness. Made a large batch of Ani Phyo's raw donut holes (added cocoa to half and cinnamon to the others). I'll be enjoying some of those babies with some cinnamon Dunkin Donuts coffee thanks to Kmouse's post where she mentioned cardamom coffee. I also have some leftover salsa so I see a big salad in my future.

Anyway, I promise original recipes super soon. I'm working on a mango ginger lemonade recipe and some strawberry colada paletas for a project that might be coming. I should know within two weeks. I am stoked!

Happy Tuesday everybody.

Just Like Home

After the day I've had, I was craving nothing more than a taste of home. I had to work with my minimal ingredients, as it's time to pick up some more produce. The other day, AdamCrisis of the PPK posted some tacos with a cheezy sauce that looked so silky I just had to know what was going on.

So tacos were on my mind. Let me clarify: bean and cheeze tacos. This time, I had to have some tortillas. So I made the cheeze sauce in this blog entry. It was so friggin good! And just as smooth as pictured. But the best part was that it wasn't super noochy. I mean, it has nooch in it, but the flavor is smooth and velvety. It was fantastic! Seriously. Make that cheeze sauce today.

And I just want to tell everybody to make Eddie G's tortillas right now! I originally saw them over at Lone Star Plate. They are super easy and really, really good. So fluffy and delightful. If you don't already know, I hate hate hate working with dough. The feeling of dough between my fingers gives me a bit of anxiety. So this dough was easy to work with, not sticky but very malleable. This will be my go to recipe from now on.

**EDIT**I forgot to say that I used water instead of almond milk because I didn't have any. I also made six instead of eight because I totally didn't read that it was for eight.

Happy Friday to all!

Inept Couriers and Easy Cheezy

It's that time of year again when almost every package I order gets lost. My local post office is filled with idiots who constantly deliver mail to the wrong house. I have lost numerous comic books this way. The latest thing is: a cd I ordered has gone missing. Then a netflix dvd disappeared. And all I got was this cellophane bag with my torn netflix sleeve in it. Now UPS let me down. Good thing my neighbor from a street over delivered it to me. It was filled with Vitasoy Chocolate Peppermint Soymilk, Papa Tofu and Vegan De Guadalupe. HOLLA!


The first thing I created was a veganized version of the Onion, Pepper, and Spinach Quiche Bites from Vegetarian Times (Nov/Dec 08,pg 38). I don't have a finalized recipe and probably won't until Thanksgiving. Changes I made: FYH monterrey jack for the gruyere, 1/2 cup blended silken tofu plus 1 teaspoon arrowroot for the eggs, and soy creamer for the milk. I also baked it for an hour because it took that long to brown. The result was good, but kinda sweet. Because the peppers and onions have natural sweetness, I plan to use unsweetened almond milk next time. Also, I will most likely be using Cheezly because people rave about it. I suggest letting these cool in a fridge completely before slicing. Serve at room temperature or hot.

Next up, I made some stuff from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak. Pictured below is the White Bean Boursin. I've never had boursin so I don't know how close it is. This was good though. Herby goodness, creamy, and salty. The umeboshi paste adds a tangy and salty punch. It couples with the creaminess of the white beans and really has a cheesy taste. I advise pairing this with unsalted things. It works great with baguettes and cucumbers.

I also made the Gruyere from the book. Never had gruyere before so I don't know if it compares. What I can say is that it was noochy, bitter from the tahini, and zingy from the lemon. It was good if you like nutritional yeast. It was pretty great in the French onion soup I made. And look how gooey:

Finally, I adapted Crystal's queso recipe and made chili con queso. I omitted the Rotel, added a bit more liquid and added crumbled chipotle sausage. I like this version more with a spicy Italian sausage because it reminds me of the stuff my mom used to make.

I'm getting back into food blog mode. There will be much commenting tomorrow. Also, I will be making pepper jack. Expect to see an original pesto jack recipe in the near future.