Finally, Successful Lemon Tea Cookies

So after three tries, I finally found found success with the Lemon Tea Cookies. I know you would not believe it with all the chocolate that I bake, but I much prefer citrus desserts over chocolate in the summer. These are a little thicker than a traditional cookie, but still yummy. I think I would also recommend baking a little longer than the recipe says, depending on your oven. Pictured with the cookies is a scone, I did not like the scones, so I will have to keep on baking.

Lemon Tea Cookies

1/2 cup of vegan margarine or butter

3/4 cups of sugar

1 1/2 tsp. of lemon zest

1 tsp. of baking powder

1/4 tsp. of baking soda

1/4 cup of silken tofu, soft, whizzed with 1/2 tsp. of cornstarch

1/3 cup of soy milk

1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract

1 3/4 cup of AP flour

2 tsp. of lemon juice

1/4 cup of sugar

2 Tbs. of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar for about 1 minute. Add the next four ingredients and mix well. Add the milk and vanilla and mix, then slowly add the flour about a 1/4 of a cup at a time. Mix well, on a greased cookie sheet, place cookies by teaspoonful about 2 inches apart and bake for 8-10 minutes or til edges are slightly brown. Move to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Once the cookies are cooled, mix the remaining sugar and lemon juice together an brush on cookies. The original recipe is from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook with several mods to make it Vegan.


(Above) Yes I have been thrift shopping again. This is the exact identical twin of my favorite plate to eat off of at my Mother-in-Law's house. I love the completely 70's design.
(Above) I found the lovely strawberry plant on this one, and couldn't resist.
(Above) This lovely little dish has a nice pattern to it, but the main reason I purchased it was because I have been needing a little serving dish for small side items.(And I liked it a lot)

My prayers and thoughts are with anyone in the line of hurricane Gustav. God Bless!!!!!!!!!!

Shake Your Bon-Bon

The other day I had made a batch of Golden cupcake from Vctotw, just to find them not that golden or tasty. I hate to waste food, which had me thinking how I could salvage those cupcakes. I don't remember where I saw this from, but I think it was the Barefoot Contessa one afternoon. I made some cake bon-bons. And Damn!!! Where these tasty.

1 batch of screwed up cupcakes

1 1/2 cups of water

1 1/2 cups of sugar

18 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or I used chips

4 1/2 tbs of earth balance

rum, whiskey, or assorted extracts and nuts

toasted nuts of your choice

lots of time

Crumble the cupcakes up in one large bowl. Mix the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat till sugar is melted and you have created a simple syrup. Have several smaller bowls, or I just rinsed an reused mine, ready to go. Have one large cookie sheet with parchment paper right beside you. Pour about 1/2 cup of simple syrup in your small bowl(s), add about 1 tsp of your extract/liquors or both. I used lemon extract with rum/Jack Daniels/Chocolate chips. The lemon/rum ones were my favorite, followed by the Jack. Once you have the syrup and flavoring added, add about a cup to a cup and a half of your cake crumbs and mix till cake is almost soggy but holds a ball shape when you form it with your fingers. Place on cookie sheet. Continue with whatever flavors you have chosen till you are out of cake. Place in refrigerator to set. While the cake balls are setting up, melt the earth balance in a medium size saucepan on low-medium heat. Once melted add the chocolate and melt it as well. Pull cake balls out of fridge and using a spoon and fork begin dipping the balls in chocolate and replacing on sheet. Continue this process till all balls are covered, garnish as desired.

The ones I snapped a shot of are rum-lemon balls with lemon zest, Bourbon, chocolate chip with toasted almonds. These are incredibly rich!!! But so good.........
No I didn't make these in the same day! These are lemon tea cookies which I still did not like so I am trying again.

Taco Salad Anyone?

Growing up around the Memphis area, I always was crazy about Pancho's restaurants. My obsession began with the cheese dip and chips and moved on to the famous Pancho's dressing. A tangy and flavorful mix of mustard, olive oil, vinegar and oregano. Sounds so simple yet I have not been able to duplicate the taste though I have tried numerous times. I found that I could still enjoy Pancho's since going vegan, the salsa and dressing are so much better than the cheese dip ever was. We had planned on going to the downtown location, just to discover that it had closed down. We ended up at Huey's which was still good, but just did not conquer the craving. I ended up picking up some of the dressing and making a huge taco salad with beans, lettuce, tomato, onions, black olives, tofutti sour cream, tortilla chips and lots of Pancho's dressing. WOW!!!!!!! Was this good!!!!!!!!!!! Settled my craving and was so yummy!! Now I just have to get some of the salsa and some chips..........................

No More Custard for Awhile

So the first attempt was a failure, but like all good cooks I will persevere!! The texture was almost right it just needs a little less tofu, my oven needs to quit heating up hotter on one side then the other, and I need to use something to add a little of a creamier color to the custard itself. I am thinking of using that little trick that is in Vwav with the turmeric for really golden cupcakes.


I think I might lose my sanity once the farmer's market is over. I loaded up on some goodies, some that are pictured some are not. Sorry about the crap in back, ah, the joys of a tiny kitchen. Pictured are mustard greens, red bell pepper, sweet potatoes, peaches, apples and over on the far left at the bottom is some organic basil and sage.


I also almost shouted for joy at finding some more muscadines!! I love these tiny bits of heaven. I found myself eating a lot of fresh fruit bowls last week, with these beauties fitting in nicely.

Custar'd's Last Stand? Maybe Not Ha-Ha

Yeah, I know, REALLY bad play on words this time. So when I was a lot younger I used to enjoy custard pie. I have not consumed one in probably fourteen years or so...........and decided to experiment with a peach custard pie. I am waiting for it to cool, anxiously I might add. I swapped tofu for the eggs and several changes in the recipe I have. The pic above is pre-custard of course. But I thought I would show how pretty the it MIGHT look. I also have another experimental bread in the oven. I will post the results hopefully tomorrow.
And yes you are seeing double. I was wandering through the same thrift store which I had found the two larger plates of this pattern at and happened upon this two desert/tea plates!! Two whole weeks after I found their parents. I was so excited, I think it was even more thrilling to find that it only cost me sixty cents for the both of them.

New Material Coming Soon!!

I am in the process of cooking up some more baked goodies and as I have a passion for anything that involves being in the kitchen, a ton of other stuff. I found some beautiful peppers at the farmer's market which I need to post a pic of...and I would have liked to have taken some snapshots of the lovely muscadine's that I happened upon, however they are sadly in the process of being digested. So please check back over the next few days!!!

I Found my Thrill on Blueberry Hill, Okay not Yet!

So here is the aforementioned blueberry muffin/coffee cake. With a few ingredient changes, it should be good to go. The muffin part itself has a slightly bitter aftertaste to it, I think maybe a little more sweetener and a little less baking powder. The topping is really good but I think that it needs to be thicker. I love the combination of the crunchy topping, which is just brown sugar, a little bit of oil, flour and toasted almonds. All vegan of course.

On a separate note, I had a special request for my nephews 28th birthday for the non-vegan supposedly "better than sex" cake that I used to make all of the time. Now my in-laws are a trip so they renamed the cake "close to a hand job". Either name is fine with me.(Hey!! At least I didn't have to make up a name for the in-laws like I did with my mom. Chocolate sundae cake, yeah right) But this was the first really non-vegan cake I have made since going vegan, and I thought it would be tempting because I really did used to like it. When I started putting it together and saw everything that was going into, it made me physically ill to think of how many horrid things I used to consume! Anyway, I know it sounds lame but it was almost like an epiphany. Nice to know though that I no longer taste the things that used to tempt me!!

Soup's on

For reasons unknown to me, my stomach has been on a turbulent twisting roller coaster ride this past week. Due to that wonderful ride I have been unable to tolerate much of anything in the way of food. Having grown weary of store-bought vegan soups, I decided to make my own. It began as a Minestrone and turned into a macaroni-minestrone-vegetable soup. It is loaded with carrots, potatoes, sweet peas, green beans, diced tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and macaroni. It is seasoned with oregano, parsley, basil, garlic, onion, salt and pepper. I was really aiming for a minestrone, but quickly discovered I was missing the correct pasta and the needed beans. I was also completely out of corn. This turned out so incredibly good, that I will definitely be making this quite often over the coming winter. Though I do think I should invite everyone I know over when I do recreate this meal, this made so much soup. I froze most of it so I no longer have to rely on nasty canned vegan soups.

Feeling slightly better after consuming some hot soup, I decided to experiment with some of the blueberries that were left from last weeks farmer's market. I have been playing around with a muffin/coffee cake recipe, very similar to the banana chocolate chip muffins that I posted last week. It is a basic muffin recipe with a coffee cake topping and some toasted slivered almonds to add some depth to the flavor. I will post an inside soon.

M-I-C-K-E-Y

So I did not realize until I began editing this picture, that I had a Mickey mouse with an acorn squash head and baby watermelon ears! My mother-in-law has been wanting a watermelon so bad, however no one in my family eats as much as we used too so we ended up purchasing several little "sweet-babies". They were actually pretty tasty. I haven't been doing a lot of cooking this week, rather enjoying some stuff I had fixed up Saturday. Potato salad, smothered okra with rice, no bake peanut butter-chocolate-oatmeal cookies, etc. I plan on attempting some cooking/baking over the next few days.

Yummy Muffins

Sorry about the wrapper in the background, but I had to show the consistency of this yummy treat.

I had some bananas that were ready to be consumed, yet not enough people at home to consume them. I meandered into the kitchen, mashed the bananas and went from there. Okay, no offense to anyone but what is the deal with cookbooks putting cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in every single banana recipe? I am all about spices but not in my banana muffins. So being tired of the same problem, I said screw it and made my own. Not a big deal I know, but still more fun than following a recipe.

Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins:

1 1/4 cup of flour(I used half whole-wheat pastry and half AP flour)

3/4 cup of sugar

1 1/4 tsp of baking soda

1/4 tsp. of salt

1 cup of mashed bananas

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup of oil

2 tsp of vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease/line a 12 dozen muffin pan. Then simply sift the dry ingredients together, making sure to leave a well in the center. Than mix all of the wet ingredients together, pour the wet into the dry, mixing just till thoroughly combined, being sure not to over mix. Add the chocolate chips and mix gently. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean(just try and avoid the chocolate chips.). Enjoy.

Now as promised, the tasty dressing I used on my pasta salad:

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup of red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp. of parsley flakes(dried or fresh)

1/2 tsp. of oregano(dried)

1/2 tsp. of basil(dried)

1/2 tsp. of onion powder(or diced up onions are really good in the salad)

1 clove of garlic minced(less if you are not a huge garlic fan, but I like to be sure the vampires don't get close unless invited.)

1/4 tsp. of salt

1/4 tsp. of sugar

Mix all ingredients together in a shallow bowl, being sure to make sure that it is fully combined. I am so bad about adding other stuff every time I make dressing, so these measurements may not be exact and I always add extra garlic.

Tofu Fries!!!

So I try to eat healthy everyday and before you think about all the baking I do and chuckle, I make all of my baked goodies as healthy as possible. Back to the meal below. I think I have found my favorite unhealthy but extremely tasty tofu recipe!! Tofu Fries!! I discovered the recipe on VegWeb, yet made several modifications to the recipe. I made this Monday, one of the few days I was home the entire day. I served them with turnip greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread and rice(with plenty of vegan butter on top). Joey also decided to make his yummy fried green tomatoes which we almost always eat with ranch dressing. The tofu fries are at the top of the plate underneath the cornbread. I am now going to have to prepare these a couple of times a month.


Tofu Fries

1 package of extra firm tofu(drained and pressed)

3 -4 TBS. of vegan butter

Seasonings of your choice

Once the tofu is drained, simply melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cut the tofu in eight strips across the block, then simply cut these to look as fries. Coat the fries generously with seasonings. I loved the Cajun blend I did mine in. Then just add the strips to the hot butter, cooking each side for about 3-4 minutes till crispy. Drip/drain on paper towels and enjoy!

P.S. I forgot to mention that the recipe calls for the butter, I used a smaller amount of canola oil and it tasted great.

Blinded By The Light

Of my refrigerator that is!! Okay, so a bad play on words. Anyhow. After a fairly busy and long week, I was greatly looking forward to the monthly Food Awareness meeting tonight. However, it was not meant to be. Sadly my husband received a phone call about a half an hour before we were due to leave, one of his fellow employees had a bad car accident earlier this week(Thank God he was not injured worse than he was), and had been expected to return this eve. To make a long story short, he wasn't recovered enough to come in tonight.

So instead of going to the meeting, I ended up spending the evening cleaning and baking. Which my refrigerator thanks me for now. My house is almost done, the laundry is caught up and I have a batch of muffins cooling in the kitchen! Whew!

I had my heart set on a falaffel from Pita Wraps in Memphis tonight, and didn't get to fulfill that need. And really had not planned on cooking tonight, so I found myself, literally, standing in the kitchen looking for something to throw together. Now in the past, I have had the worst experiences with pasta salads. I completely swore them off about 9 years ago, when I had one that was drowned in mayonnaise. Something had me wanting some tonight though. So I dug around and came up with concoction above. It was really simple, and once I put it on paper, I will post it here. It consisted of whole wheat pasta, tomatoes and black olives. With a really simple vinaigrette.

A Few Goodies

Do you ever find yourself doing stuff around the house, when you know you should be sleeping/resting? This happens to me so often, I no longer keep count. We made a quick run to the Memphis Farmer's Market today, to stock up and to hold on to what is left of our sanity. So I thought I would show some of the great things I found today. Pictured directly below are green tomatoes, okra, bell peppers, Ripley tomatoes, and hiding to the far left are some peaches, the leeks I was surprised to discover, and a couple of medium sized Heirloom tomatoes.(The plum colored one on the right.) I also picked up another quart of the organic blueberries that I so enjoy.





Here we have some Chinese long beans, as well as something I have never seen in my life! Chinese squash! If anyone has any recipe ideals for this, please let me know. I have a few thoughts, but would love some suggestions.
We stopped by Kroger's to pick up a few things, and I discovered the organic Tahini was on sale for four dollars rather than the six that it normally is. And beside that is the Kroger brand dressing that I have become addicted to. Now, I love making homemade salad dressings, but some days you just don't feel like it. I have to say, this is one of the best bottled dressings I have ever tasted. If you sprinkle a little vegan Parmesan on the salad and then the dressing, it tastes dangerously close to Olive Garden's signature dressing.(Or as close as I can remember.)
And because sometimes you just need some chocolate, and also because I realized the banana brownies where all given away. I whipped these up late Thursday night, when yet again I should have been sleeping. (Damn insomnia is a bitch!!!!!!) I found the recipe on http://vegweb.com/ and switched a couple of things. I used soy yogurt rather than the flax seed, since I was out, and threw some chocolate chips in the batter. I can honestly say that these are the best Vegan brownies that I have ever had, and it was really shocking when Joey agreed with me. He enjoys experimenting with Vegan food, but just isn't completely there yet, so when I discover something I like, he generally has a pickier palate than I. I wish it was a better picture, but these went really quickly. I came back with the camera, and it looked like someone had attacked the plate. Though it was agreed that these taste even better once they have cooled and settled.