International Picnic Day!

Did you know June 18th is International Picnic Day? Picnics are pretty much the best thing about summer. You can have a picnic almost anywhere and with anyone. Even solo picnics are fun.

Stuck indoors for picnic day? No problem! A cheerful lunch bag and napkin can bring a smile to your face and make lunchtime a little bit special, even if you’re tied to your desk at work. Here at Sparkle J Designs we believe even common meals like weekday lunch can be made fun with just a bit of effort.

To celebrate this glorious holiday we’re offering 15% off all picnic items in the shop! Lunch bags, napkins, mason jar cozies, even party banners! Use coupon code PICNIC2013 at checkout to receive the discount. That coupon code is valid until midnight tonight.

Happy picnicking, everyone!

Sunday Eats! Summer Rolls (or Tauntaun Guts Rolls, if you’re feeling extra geeky)

Time has gotten away from me and this recipe has been sitting here in the queue for ages. I made these delicious summer rolls for our Lost Finale party (way back a zillion years ago) representing the Kwons (we had a dish representing most of our favorite characters). Yes, I know these rolls aren’t exactly Korean. Or really Korean at all. However, I did use quite a bit of mint, which is often used in Korean fare. If I wanted them to be more authentic, I should have used pickled vegetables for the filling and seaweed for the wrapper, but I wasn’t in the mood for that, so I cheated. Anyway, they’re delicious, and despite their appearance otherwise, they’re quite easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• rice paper spring roll wrappers
• thin vermicelli-style rice noodles
• tofu
• mint leaves (2 each per roll)
• vegetables, sliced into thin sticks or shredded, pickled or fresh

Equipment:

• shallow pan filled with hot water
• bamboo rolling mat (optional)

Boil some water in your kettle and leave it on to keep the water hot while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Cook the rice noodles as per the package instructions (most likely boiling them for three to four minutes). As soon as the noodles are cooked, drain them immediately and rinse them under the cold tap to stop them from cooking and to make them easy to handle. Drain the noodles and set them aside.

Slice, peel, or shred your veggies, and set them aside. I usually stuff my rolls with sliced cucumber, avocado, or shredded carrots. Slice the tofu into thin-ish sticks as well, and set aside.

Once you’ve got all your ingredients prepped, you’re ready to roll. (Hah. Punny.) Fill the shallow pan with hot water. Slide one of the wrappers into the pan, making sure the water covers it. After about 10 seconds (or less) it will be dramatically softened. Here’s where it gets a bit tricky. Carefully lift the wrapper from the pan and place on your bamboo mat, or other surface. It will probably stick together like cling film. It takes a bit of practice to figure out a way to handle it so it doesn’t stick and tear.

Once you’ve got it on your mat, plop down a handful of noodles near in the lower third of the wrapper. Top the noodles with the sliced or shredded veggies, tofu, and two mint leaves. Using the mat to assist you (optional) bring the lower edge of the wrapper over the top of the pile of filling. Bring the sides of the wrapper up over the ends of the filling. Make sure the ends of the roll are secure as you roll it up, using your fingers to tuck in any stray filling. The stickiness of the wrappers will allow it to adhere to itself and seal in the filling nice and tightly.

It’s a bit tricky to get at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be whipping these out in large quantities in no time flat. I like to enjoy mine with sesame ginger or peanut sauce. (And if you are making these in large quantities, it’s best to cover them with a damp cloth or some cling film so the completed ones don’t dry out.)

I have also been known to refer to these as “Tauntaun Guts Rolls” because when you cut them in half, the noodles kind of look like, well, you know. But they smell good on both the inside and the outside, so there’s that at least.

Sunday Eats! Potatoes Faux Gratin

This is one of my favorite dishes to make, because it’s super tasty and very easy to prepare. The oats thicken up the sauce and the cashews add a wonderful creaminess.

Ingredients:

• 3 large potatoes (or 5 medium potatoes)
• 1/2 c. quick cooking oats
• 1/2 c. cashew pieces (preferably unsalted)
• 1/3 c. nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/8 tsp turmeric
• 1/8 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper to taste
• water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a casserole dish.

Scrub up and de-eye the potatoes. Slice them to 1/4 inch thickness or thinner if you can. If you’ve got one of those fancy mandolin thingies, try that, but they don’t need to be transparently thin or anything. I prefer to think of them as “rustic slices.” Give them a quick rinse under the cold tap to get rid of some of the excess starch. Drain and plop them in your casserole dish.

In your blender or (if you’re a lucky gal like me) Super Vitamix 5000 combine the remaining dry ingredients and a cup or so of water. Add more water so the whole mixture is about 2 1/2 cups or so. You want it good and liquefied, with an even consistency. No bits of nuts or oats floating about- you don’t want gritty potatoes. If you don’t think your blender is powerful enough, and if you’ve got a food processor, grind up the cashews, oats, and nutritional yeast, before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. If you are using salted cashews, don’t add the salt until after it’s blended and you’ve tasted it. Once you’ve got it flavored to your liking, pour the liquid over the potatoes in the casserole dish. Give it a quick shake side to side to get the liquid between the potato slices. Bake for about 45 minutes. It’s done when the potatoes are soft and the liquid has thickened. If you cut your slices fairly thick like I do, you’ll probably need to bake it for another 10 minutes or so. Once it’s out of the oven, remove the lid and let it rest for several minutes so it sets up a bit. You can also take the lid off a few minutes before it’s done so the top gets a little brown.
I like to serve it with toasted sesame seeds on top. Or for a variation, you could blend a tablespoon or two of toasted sesame seeds in with the liquid before baking. Enjoy!

Next time on Sunday Eats! Summer Rolls!

Sunday Eats! Crumb Cake

This has become one of my favorite cakes ever. I could eat this for every meal. Not healthy for the long term, but at least I’d die blissfully happy.This is from My Sweet Vegan. You really need to buy this book. It’s amazing. And Hannah Kaminsky is very charming and fun. I started with her Plum Good Crumb Cake and altered it a bit to suit my tastes and the fact that I don’t have a stand mixer. (One day I’ll be posh enough to own a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. If you’re buying for me, I’d like one in “Yellow Pepper,” please.)

I veered from the original in the following ways: bit more butter and less salt in the crumb topping, more vanilla in the cake batter and I omitted the fruit. Oh and I mixed the wet and dry stuff separately and then combined.

For the crumb topping (my favorite part)

• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 Tbs. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 Tbs. ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. margarine

For the cake

The wet stuff:

• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 c. margarine
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 3/4 c. vegan sour cream
• 3/4 c. soy yogurt
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

The dry stuff:

• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease an angel food cake tin (tube shaped tin).

Make the crumb topping: In a small bowl sift together the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt. Add the brown sugar and stir to combine, making sure to break up the brown sugar lumps. Melt the margarine and drizzle over the top of the flour mixture, stirring with a fork as you go. This will form crumbs of various sizes. If you accidentally over-mix and end up with a buttery dough, fear not. Just use your hands to crumble it up. Set aside.

Whisk the almond milk and vinegar together in a small bowl and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate, large bowl cream together the sugar and margarine. Stir in the almond milk mixture, vanilla, sour cream, and yogurt until combined and nice and creamy. (Try to resist licking up too much of this stuff. I’ve thought of mixing up a batch of just this bit and adding some agar to make a lovely custard for custard tarts. But I digress.)

Gradually stir the dry stuff in to the bowl with the wet stuff. Be careful not to over-mix, but be sure to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl to make sure all the dry stuff is incorporated.

Glop it into the cake tin. It’s a thick batter, so you’ll probably have to gently spread it out with the back of the spoon or rubber spatula. Top with the crumble mixture, making sure to spread it ’round evenly. Bake for 50 minutes. If your oven heats unevenly, you may want to spin it ’round half way through baking. It’s done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

It will be difficult, but leave it in the pan to cool completely before you begin devouring it. Wouldn’t want to spoil the presentation by letting it fall to pieces as you attempt to take it out of the pan while still hot.

This cake is a delicious accompaniment to tea (Earl Grey. Hot.) or with a chilled glass of almond milk. Enjoy!

Next week on Sunday Eats! Potatoes Faux Gratin.

Sunday Eats! Veggie Oat Casserole

I was trying to think of a way to get myself to blog more often. My crafting is so intermittant that I didn’t want to rely on a weekly crafty update. But what do I do every day? EAT!

Lunch is my favorite meal of the day. It’s the one meal that I actually sit down to eat and the one meal that actually gets planned ahead, since Jesse and I make food and pack lunches the night before. My lunch paraphenalia is always really bright and cheerful. I’m a sucker for cute lunch boxes and lunch bags and colorful cloth napkins. (Spoiler alert: Been sewing like mad lately. Napkins and lunch bags soon to be added to my Etsy shop! I know, I hear you say, “She has an Etsy shop?” Yes. Just, ahem, never used. But I digress.)

I spend most Sundays cooking dishes that will be used in our lunches throughout the work week. So I thought for this first installment of “Sunday Eats” I’d give you the recipe for one of my new favorites, the Veggie Oat Casserole. (It’s a very loose adaptation from several recipes I saw for veggie haggis.) I tried to think of a more clever name for it, but I’m stumped. If you think of a better one, please leave a comment!

I’ve put up the occasional recipe before, but I’m always such a slacker when people ask for my recipes. I rarely measure things and everything I use is based on what’s in my fridge or pantry at the time. Then I stress out about perfecting the recipe before I put it online. And I never get around to it because it’s never quite ready.

Yeah, then I got over myself. What you get here is basically a running commentary of how I put together this dish. I try to give approximate measurements so you can at least have a starting point before you tweak it for your own tastes. Really, any measurement I give is just a guess after the fact.

Enough babbling! On to the food! I was going to take pictures but I got distracted. I even had things out in little bowls like on those cooking shows! Ah well. Next time.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped veggies. Rough chop is fine, as long as they’re in very small pieces. I used onions, celery, carrots, and mushrooms.
• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 Tbs veggie bouillon paste
• 1 Tbs miso paste
• Water
• Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 (F). Lightly oil a large casserole dish.

Sautee the veggies with a bit of olive oil in a stock pot. I started with the onions and celery, then when those got a bit translucent I added the carrots and mushrooms. Stir and cook for few minutes.

While the veggies are cooking, throw the kidney beans and the bouillon and miso pastes into a blender. Add water and blend until the whole mess measures about 3 cups. If you can’t find bouillon paste, use veggie broth instead of water. Taste it several times, and add whatever seasonings you want. It should be a bit salty, as it’s going to balance out the plain oats. Once you’ve got it to suit your taste, add the bean mixture to the stock pot. Stir and bring to a boil.

As soon as it starts to bubble, turn the heat down and stir in the oats. Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. It will start to thicken up as the oats cook.

Glop everything into the oiled casserole dish and cover. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. It’s done when the liquid is absorbed and the edges around the top start to pull away from the sides. Let it stand for a few minutes so it sets up a bit before serving.

Enjoy!

Next time on Sunday Eats: Crumb Cake! With pictures, I promise.

It’s nice to have your friends for dinner

The Second Donner Party at Tuffet Manor was quite fun, indeed. Everyone brought cannibal-themed food, and much whiskey was consumed (though not really by me, I swear). All-in-all, a great night.

The 25th of January is Robert Burns’ birthday, and in the tradition of a Burns Night Supper, I decided to try my hand at a vegetarian haggis.* The real thing is made with oats, onions, herbs, and sheep organs (heart, liver, lungs) all boiled together in a sheep’s stomach. It sounds dreadful, but looking at photos makes it seem far less disgusting somehow. It just looks like an oat-based casserole. I started with this recipe from the Vegetarian Society of the UK. I made the following modifications to fit my tastes and available ingredients:

1. Soybean oil instead of sunflower oil
2. Brown lentils instead of red
3. Cashews instead of peanuts and hazelnuts
4. Omitted the soy sauce
5. Fresh parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme instead of dried thyme and rosemary and “mixed spice” (whatever that means)
6. Omitted the cayenne pepper (only because I forgot to put it in)
7. Assumed “fine oatmeal” meant steel cut oats, which is what I saw as an ingredient in many other recipes; and I only used 7 oz instead of 8, because my measuring device only held 7 oz and I didn’t think it needed the extra 1 oz.
8. Added celery and garlic to the onions
9. EDIT TO ADD: I can’t believe I forgot to mention this when making the list, but I added 1/3 cup scotch to the vegetable stock. Many recipes called for as much as a half cup, but I thought that would be a bit too strong.

Basically you sautee the veggies, add the stock, lentils, oats, and seasonings, and simmer for a while. Then plop the mixture into a dish and bake at 375 for a half hour or so. It was pretty tasty, and I’m definitely going to make it again.

The ingredients for this version look far tastier than their traditional counterparts (emphasis on the “parts”). I do so enjoy being a vegetarian.

The smell of all the veggies cooking away was absolutely amazing. I usually hate mushrooms, but only because of their texture. If they’re cut up small enough, I get to enjoy their flavor without being grossed out. Everything in this dish is to be chopped quite finely.

After the veggies have cooked a while, add part of the stock and the oats and lentils. Blend the kidney beans with the remaining stock, then stir into the pot.

Simmer for a while until the oats and lentils are partially cooked, around 20 minutes or so. Turn out into the oiled baking dish and bake at 375 F for about a half hour.

Boil up some potatoes and turnips, mash and season separately. I used a bit of Earth Balance margarine, salt and pepper, and a bit of nutritional yeast.

And there you have it: vegetarian haggis with neeps and tatties. (This one is a wee bit blurrier than the rest, as I forgot my camera and took these photos with my phone.)

Here’s only a portion of the whole spread: hand-cake (better than face-cake, so I’ve heard), various and sundry meaty things named after fleshy and bony bits, vegan chili (made with free-range vegans), sloppy Joes (made with bits of Joe), and our delicious vegan haggis. NOM!

My favorite dish brought to the gathering was of course, the Spotted Dick and Jammy Balls.

*A sin against God, so it is said.

I <3 Brinner: The Beer Waffles Edition

Remember Scrubs Season 7, Episode 7? You know, the one with Brinner? Mmmm, breakfast for dinner.

We do brinner fairly often around here, especially since I like breakfast foods but cannot eat very much in the morning. When we have waffles, it’s most often for dinner or brunch on the weekends. I once promised some friends I’d make them beer pancakes. I much prefer the waffle to the pancake, so I’ve decided to start trying out various beer batter recipes. Tonight’s was adapted from a recipe that I’ve since lost the source for, but it was a british one and so had to be converted.

A few notes on this round:
I was out of honey so I used granulated sugar, which worked fine. All we had was PBR so I imagine it would be even better with a good beer.  I used Earth Balance margarine instead of butter, vanilla almond milk instead of milk (and also omitted the vanilla). I used Ener-G Egg Replacer instead of eggs, and I just mixed them in with the rest of the stuff. The batter was a little too doughy so I added a bit more almond milk and then some water.  Because I added those extra liquids at the end, the final texture was a bit off from being over-mixed. Next time I’ll just use less flour.
They were pretty tasty, and I think with just a bit more tweaking they’ll be pretty darned good.

Here’s the recipe as written:

• 250 g flour
• 330 ml beer
• 125 g butter
• 60 ml milk
• 2 eggs separated
• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything except the egg whites in a bowl. Whisk the egg whites separately until they form soft peaks, fold into the batter.

My version, with non-metric conversions:

• 2 1/4 c flour
• 1 1/3 c beer
• 1/2 c margarine
• 60 ml vanilla almond milk
• 2 eggs worth of Ener-G Egg Replacer
• 1 Tbs granulated sugar

Mix everything together in one big bowl.

cake and pie and the fourth of july

In which I attempt to redeem my baking reputation.

The cookie pie incident of the previous week left me a little… shaken, I suppose. I decided to try my hand at these first. Cupcakes. I can handle that. And brownies. No problem. Though the construction requires a bit more effort than my usual cakes, they seemed simple enough. Despite a little problem of tinting my home made vegan buttercream, they came out looking rather nice, I think. BEHOLD!

This is how it all went down:

While watching the Sox game with the in-laws next door (which we lost, btdubs), and in between cocktails (grapefruit soda and vodka, if you’re curious), I ran home to check on the brownies periodically. I used a boxed mix. Shut up. I so do not lose any baker’s cred for that. I just can’t get my brownies to be gooey and fudgey like the boxed mix ones. I don’t remember which brand I used. Apart from being a little too sweet (and wicked oily), they were pretty decent.

The batter:

Out of the oven:

I used a cookie cutter to cut them in to discs for the patty portion of the cupcakes. I probably should have done this just after they cooled, instead of waiting until the next morning, because they were a little tricky to get out of the pan. I only broke a couple of them, so it wasn’t a complete disaster.

The patties are the bits on the right:

After several cocktails and a Red Sox loss, I decided I probably shouldn’t attempt the cakes before bed, so I waited ’til morning. I whipped up a batch of Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from VCTOTW for the buns. They came out a little flat, but that’s probably because I couldn’t find my measuring spoons and merely estimated the amounts of things. And about half way through I realized I had the oven on the wrong temperature. Oh, and I baked them naked in the pan (no liners) and I think I was a little over zealous with the cooking spray. They were a bit oily on the outside.

I had a little trouble with the fluffy vegan buttercream frosting this time around. I heated up the shortening to soften it (as I keep mine in the fridge) and I didn’t let it cool enough before adding the powdered sugar. The fat kept separating from the rest of the mixture. After alternating chilling and whipping (several times) I managed to get it to hold together well enough. I also had a little trouble with the color.

Adding the red:

No matter how much red I added, I couldn’t get it any darker than this lovely shade of pink. I didn’t want it to taste like vanilla flavored food coloring, so I gave up and decided that pink was now going to be a design feature rather than a failure.

Pink ketchup frosting:

Once the vanilla cakes were cooled, I sliced them in half, placed a brownie patty in between, piped on some pink ketchup frosting, and sprinkled some sesame seeds on top. JeT found these cute, plaid cupcake liners. I flattened them out a bit to hold each of the burger cupcakes.*

They were pretty tasty. Nom.

The cookie pie came out pretty well, too, though I still need to tweak the recipe and cooking time and temp. It was a little too doughy in the center. I was good and wrapped the edges with foil to keep them from burning, and I put it on a baking sheet this time. Once I get the recipe perfected, I shall post it along with some proper photos. Until then, here are a couple of teasers:

Batter up:

Looks better than it tastes:

We had a few friends over and played a little horseshoes, badminton, and sat around the fire chatting. It was a lovely, low-key evening. (Though I didn’t see any fireworks this year. I think I’ll have to remedy that soon.)

I hope you had a lovely Independence Day with plenty of food, friends, and family. And I hope you saw some spectacular fireworks.

*Did you ever see Good Will Hunting edited for TV? The scene where they get Kelly’s (I think) is edited beyond hilarity: Casey Affleck repeatedly says “gimme my fucking sandwich!” which is edited to “gimme my burger sandwich!” over and over and over. So now I have “gimme my burger cupcake!” in my head, with Casey Affleck’s voice. Which is awesome.

“Dare you behold the unmitigated terror that awaits you?”

As my dear friend, Penny Dreadful, is wont to ask.

So this evening’s baking plans started out well enough. I had a recipe. I gathered the ingredients. I tweaked and veganized the recipe. I made rude jokes about the name of the recipe with friends (cookie pie. for reals.)… so what could have gone wrong? I disobeyed my gut instinct and years and years of baking experience.

The pie crust was thawed.

The batter was mixed and poured into the crust.

The pie went into the duly preheated oven. But, dear friends, I did not put the pie on a baking sheet.

When the oven timer beeped, I promptly sprang up from the computer to remove it from the oven. Only to have the pie plate fold before my unbelieving eyes, dumping the delicious, chocolately contents all over the inside of the oven door.

This, my friends, is a dessert disaster comparable to that of a certain halloween cake, we shall stealthily refer to as “Schmoan.” This tops the coconut-lime-icing-with-the-consistency-of-play-doh disaster earlier this summer. This is a travesty. Oh, sweet cookie pie. I done did you wrong!

Perhaps I can salvage some of it? If I just scrape it here and there and use a ladle and spatula… maybe?

Think anyone will notice?

Gooey Fudge Frosting

(based on the “Thick Chocolate Fudgey Frostin'” from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, with more vanilla and additional instructions)

1/2 c margarine
1/2 c agave nectar
3-4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c cocoa powder
1/2 c soy milk powder

I glop everything in a bowl and mix with a handmixer until well combined, starting on low, then increasing gradually to high. (The original recipe calls for mixing it in stages, but it’s really unnecessary- just make sure you’re careful not to fling the stuff everywhere by mixing on high before everything’s properly combined.)

The original recipe also notes that you’ll not want to use flavored or granulated soy milk powder, but I find that even the non-granulated, non-flavored powders need to sit for a long time (several hours, or better yet overnight) to really combine. They powder needs to absorb the moisture from the wet ingredients, and then the soy-milkiness will be better combined in the frosting. Do not attempt to top cupcakes with freshly made frosting, or you’ll have a nasty, grainy mess. It’s much tastier and the texture is much better for letting it rest a while.

After mixing, place the covered bowl in the fridge. Before piping or spreading on cupcakes, let it sit out for several minutes to soften. This frosting doesn’t hold up well on a very hot day, as it’s a bit melty, but even at it’s gooiest, its’ still delicious. A crowd favorite, indeed.

Enjoy!