Recipe Review--Post Punk Kitchen Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was drawn in by this recipe for chocolate chip cookies at the Post Punk Kitchen (PPK), and decided to give it a whirl.

I followed the recipe fairly closely--I used olive oil instead of canola because we didn't have canola, and soy milk instead of almond milk. I did not use tapioca flour, again because I didn't have it, although I read later that I could have probably substituted corn starch for it. I may have used slightly more chocolate chips than originally called for, as I was just finishing up a bag.

The cookies turned out pretty well, and looked remarkably like the ones on the PPK blog. The chewy texture was nice and even my partner, who does not like chocolate, enjoyed them. During the baking process, the greasiness of the dough was overwhelming--it was hard to escape just how much oil went into this recipe. If you're looking for a decent vegan chocolate chip recipe, I would recommend this one, but if you're a vegetarian or omnivore, I would recommend a recipe that uses butter and eggs instead. Halfway through the recipe I found myself asking why I was making these vegan cookies when I had butter and eggs in the fridge. Overall, it was nice to have some cookies on hand and the adventure served as a reminder that vegan isn't always better for vegetarians.

College Newspaper Collages

I worked at the student newspaper throughout college as both a writer and an editor, and have been saving a huge stack of papers from that time period. As part of my ongoing efforts to declutter, I decided to create some collages of some of the papers and get rid of most of the rest (I do have separate photocopies of some of my favorite articles, cartoons, etc.) The collages represent a variety of my favorite articles, headlines, ads, etc., and will hopefully be better appreciated than a stack of papers in the file cabinet.

Weeknight Cheater Recipe: Sweet Potato Casserole

I love a good sweet potato casserole. When else is a vegetable practically a dessert? Plus, I find that its just as delicious as a cold leftover as it is warm fresh out of the oven.

However, the thought of roasting sweet potatoes and spending lots of time on the topping makes them seem an unlikely candidate for a weeknight dinner. Until I decided to try a weeknight cheater version.

Instead of baking the sweet potatoes, I pierced each one a few times with a fork and microwaved until they were done (my microwave has a potato setting, if yours doesn't, you can try 2-3 minutes at a time). While the potatoes were cooling a bit, I preheated the oven and gathered my topping ingredients. I scooped each of the sweet potatoes out of its shell and mashed a bit with a fork before placing in the pie dish. Then, I topped with sweet corn flake cereal (Trader Joe's honey bunches of oats type) which I crushed with my hands and some pre-crushed baking walnuts. I zapped some butter in the microwave to melt it and stirred some brown sugar into the butter before drizzling over the top. Then I baked for 20 mins at 350. Pretty easy, and very worth the minimal effort.

*PS--isn't the spoon rest adorable? I got it from Texas Ceramics on Etsy (texasceramics.etsy.com).

Weeknight Cheater Recipes

Since I plan on running quite a few of them, I thought I should say a word about what I'm calling "Weeknight Cheater Recipes." These are recipes that are about as healthy as what I'd make on a weekend, but involve a few cut corners. They don't involve all of the steps that I would perform in an ideal world, but they get a decent meal on the table when time is limited. Let me know what you think and if you have suggestions!

Vegetarian Peanut Noodles

Ingredients:
-2/3 cup peanut butter
-2 cloves garlic
-1/2 cup water
-2 tbsp sesame oil (can sub olive oil if needed)
-4 tbs soy sauce
-1 thumb ginger
-1/2 lime juice
-crushed red pepper
-black pepper
-pasta: 1 package udon noodles (10 oz) (can sub rice noodles or linguine)
-1 onion, chopped
-more garlic
-carrots, chopped, shredded or diced
-broccoli, chopped
-red bell pepper, chopped
-1 container extra firm tofu

Optional toppings: chopped peanuts, scallions, sesame seeds

Directions: Boil noodles as directed on package. While noodles are boiling, chop tofu into pieces of desired size and pan fry with olive oil until golden. Set tofu aside, add more oil to pan and sautee the remaining vegetables. Separately, mix peanut butter, chopped garlic, water, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, lime juice, crushed red pepper and black pepper in a sauce pan until heated through. Combine all ingredients. You can play around with the amount of sauce and vegetables to your taste.

Editors notes:

• I'm not a tofu person, but I don't mind it at all when fried as above and broken into fairly small pieces. That way I view it as part of the sauce. If the tofu chunks are too big I just eat around them, and that defeats the purpose.
• This recipe made fantastic leftovers, but I'd probably omit broccoli next time because the broccoli seems to take much longer to heat than the rest of the dish. And a cold bite of broccoli is no fun. Additional veggies can be added as desired.
  
• If you don't use ginger frequently, you can keep some in your freezer for use in dishes like this.
• We were out of lime so I used lemon with no ill effects.
• Both the broccoli and peppers I used had been frozen and turned out fine. A nice way to save on chopping/prep time!
• I used the same pan for the sauce, tofu and vegetables to minimize clean up time. As the tofu and vegetables finished I put them in my serving dish for tossing later with the pasta and sauce.
  

Banana Rum Bread Pudding

I started with Martha Stewart's recipe here. Below is the recipe I actually followed, my own modifications included:

Ingredients:
-2 tbs butter
-1.5 cups soy milk
-3 eggs
-3/4 cup brown sugar (dark)
-1/2 tsp salt
-2 tsp vanilla
-2 tbs dark rum
-3 bananas sliced into approx. 1/4 inch thick rounds
-leftover/"stale" bread (we used both white and wheat, whatever needed to be used up).

Directions:
Heat oven to 325. Fill baking pan with 1/2 inch of water (my ramekins were large so I needed to do this to two baking pans). Whisk together soy milk, eggs, 1/2 cup of the brown sugar, salt, vanilla and rum. Butter 4 six-ounce ramekins.

Sprinkle a bit of sugar into each ramekin. Put a single layer of banana slices in each ramekin. Put down a layer of bread. Pour half of the liquid mixture among the ramekins. Divide the remaining banana among the ramekins and sprinkle each with a bit of brown sugar. Top with remaining bread. Pour remaining liquid over ramekins. Press to soak bread. *I used more bread than the original recipe called for so I whipped up about 1/3 of the liquid recipe above extra, not measuring exactly but going by feel to make sure each ramekin was soaked enough. Top with a dab of butter and a sprinkle of sugar.

Cover ramekins loosely with foil, place in baking pans with water and bake for 30 minutes. Bake for another 30 mins. uncovered. Let cool.

Gowumpki/Cabbage Roll Casserole

I've been craving Polish gowumpki/cabbage rolls, and I happened to have cabbage leftover from making cole slaw earlier in the week. I didn't think I'd have the energy on a weeknight to actually make cabbage rolls, so I was excited to find a recipe for gowumpki casserole here. The recipe I actually followed, including my modifications in italics, is below:

Ingredients:

• 1 head cabbage, chopped or shredded
• 1 onion, chopped (I changed this to two onions)
• (I added 3 cloves garlic)
  
• 1 pound ground beef, browned (I subbed 4 vegetarian beer brats, crumbled, for the beef)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• grated cheese

Layer bottom of pan with 1/2 of the cabbage. (I sauteed the onion, garlic, and veggie sausage before constructing the casserole). Add filling of onion, ground beef (veggie sausage), salt, pepper, rice mixed together. Pour 1 c tomato sauce over all. Add another layer of cabbage. Pour remaining tomato sauce over top, and grated cheese, if desired. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees F. Serves 4 - 6.

I thought it could have used maybe 1/2 cup more rice. When I put it together I worried that there wasn't enough tomato sauce to keep it moist, so I covered the glass baking pan with some aluminum foil to keep the steam in, and it worked beautifully.

For the tomato sauce, I used up the tomatoes we had on the counter. I chopped them up and then blended with a stick blender until liquified. Then I simmered for about 10 minutes with some green peppers that had been chopped and stuck in the freezer for something like this, and added a bit of crushed red pepper, basil and oregano. Worked like a charm.

Overall, this was a fairly easy dish, and it was delicious and hearty. I was pleased to be able to use up some produce that might otherwise have gone to waste. Definitely would make this again!