Woo-eee, these past few days have been scorchers!
We’re still having air conditioning problems at work (the restaurant itself was 90˚ yesterday…) but it’s not so bad. As long as the customers don’t mind a slightly soggy waitress- and they don’t seem to, as it’s been pretty busy- the hours just fly by. Some women look beautiful when they sweat, and I admire them! But I am not one of them.
Still, despite the heat I’ve been cooking up a storm, using both the stove and the oven. Call me crazy… we don’t even have a fan in the kitchen or dining room!
I turned to a cookbook I haven’t used in years but always flip through and find enticing recipes. I found out about Dynise Balcavage, AKA “the urban vegan,” through a cooking demonstration at The Broadway Panhandler a couple years ago.
Using her recipe for Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Basil Cream Sauce, B and I made little dumplings with both sweet and yukon gold potatoes. We also steamed a little kale in the leftover pasta water, and sautéed a great mushroom mix we picked up at Whole Foods.
It was a delicious Italian feast, complete with red wine, bread, and lemon-garlic dipping sauce.
The next day, we tried out a recipe for two-ingredient corn tortillas, using only corn flour and water. Unfortunately, the tortillas just crumbled right up and we couldn’t get them thin enough to make burritos with. But not to worry! Instead, we made burrito bowls with black beans, romaine, tomatoes, mangoes, avocado, cheese and cilantro. Bueno bueno!
Encouraged by my thriving starter and first loaf of sourdough bread, I tried a new recipe from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book. We’ve had this cookbook forever, and it’s a reliable source for pretty much every floury thing you’ll want to put in the oven.
Unfortunately, my loaf of sourdough white bread was a bit of a flop; it was very dense and somehow the crust had a cracker-like consistency that tasted like parmesan cheese. (This is probably my fault: the recipe calls for the bread to rise four times, and I covered and let my bread rise over a 48 hour time period.)
The final cooking fail of the weak was a recipe for Tofu-Hijiki Croquettes from Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet, a book I’ve been meaning to check out and finally found at the library.
This was about as far from “croquette” consistency as you could guess. Mishap #1 was to use silken tofu instead of firm. Mishap #2 was to try to panfry the mixture in coconut oil, rather than deep-fry as the recipe calls for. (Pan-frying or baking usually works in place of deep-frying, and is much better for your body!)
The taste itself wasn’t bad, but we were frustrated and went out for pizza instead. The next day, though, I layered the tofu-seaweed mixture on top of kale, spiralized beets, lemon juice, and goddess dressing, and it was really good!
Even our “fails” were good experiences, though. Cooking is so much more fun when you have someone to share the kitchen and the table with.
Have you had any cooking flops recently?
Thanks to everyone who entered the Manitoba Harvest/ Glass Dharma giveaway! Here are the two randomly selected winners, starting with the Glass Dharma straws:
And the Manitoba Harvest hemp seeds:
Please send me an e-mail with your mailing address so you can get your loot!