VeganMoFo: We kick Food Network ASS.

Published
by
Katie
on October 5, 2008
in food, internet, pictures and veganmofo
. 9 Comments

There were a lot of awesome entries for the apple and ginger challenge.  Then again, how could there not be?  Apples and ginger go hand in hand.  They were meant to be.  Like Romeo and Juliet.  Abbot and Costello.  LOL and cats.  An overinflated sense of entitlement and americans.  I could do this all day.  Onto the entries!

Amanda wins in the ‘holy crap that was fast’ category (seriously, she is like some kind of vegan robot) with a Carrot Apple Ginger Curry Soup.

Tami came out swinging with some Ginger Seitan Apple Pierogies with Brandied Onions.

For those of you that prefer to drink your lunch, Zac has an Apple Ginger Rum drink for you.

I know I said that there wouldn’t a winner, but Michelle wins because donuts always win, like the Helen Keller card in Apples to Apples.

Liz (who wins in the ‘best rhyming food blog title’ category) made a nice Ginger Honeycrisp Sorbet for those of you who are still longing for the days of summer.

Karyn kept it simple but awesome with Candied Ginger Apples.

Georgia made a Vegan Mulligatawny, and employed my mantra of ‘when in doubt of what to make, google’.  I do that all the time when I have two things that i’m not sure how to put them together.

Becca reminds us that good food need not be beautiful with her Ginger Apple Turnovers.

Heather made a quinoa breakfast dish.  Protein is delicious!

Paula decided to use her semi-circular powers for something more whole, and made baked apples.  Why don’t I own a GT Express yet?

Jodie made some amazing looking Apple-Ginger Autumn Rolls with Sweet and Smoky Tofu.

Chessa made what looks like a perfect holiday dish, Cheezy Apple Gratin With Ginger Cream Sauce.

Kittee keeps it fresh and clean with her Apple Salad with Applemint and Candied Ginger.

Jay hit us from both sides, with a tofu dish and waffles!  The tofu dish with apple ginger sauce wins the ‘most likely that Katie would make it herself’ award.

And what did I make?  Honestly, I was stumped for a good bit.  Like I said, I didn’t want to make anything sweet about obvious like pancakes or muffins.  I thought about making apple ginger seitan sausages, but I thought someone else might’ve had that idea so I passed.  I finally settled on…

Apple Ginger Potato Pancakes!

I just made them this morning, it was slow going because I had to grate everything by hand (stupid food processor bowl is broken).  Then when I went to get out my applesauce to eat with the pancakes, I found out that I didn’t have any left.  Sad panda.  How did they taste?  Well, they were okay but I think I can see how to improve them so instead of posting a half-assed recipe, i’d like to make them again with some tweaks and post the recipe maybe next week.

So there you have it!  If you made something but didn’t get it up in time for the post, feel free to leave a link in the comments.  I think that we came up with some awesome and creative ideas.  As for next week, I don’t know if i’m going to pick again or let someone else pick, but we are doing the time frame a little different because several people didn’t like it.  Instead of it being announced on Friday night and due at noon on Sunday, it’ll be announced on Saturday and the deadline will be Sunday evening.  So if you want to participate again, try to plan your trip to the grocery store for that time.

Overall

Vegan MoFo: Iron Chef challenge!

Published
by
Katie
on October 3, 2008
in veganmofo
. 27 Comments

For those of you not on the ppk (wtf, mate), one of the ideas we had for content was to do an Iron Chef like challenge where someone (which at least this week is me) picks two ingredients and gives people the weekend to make and post their dish.

There is no prize or winners, it’s just for fun and to keep you on your toes.  What does that even mean?  I don’t know about you, but i’m pretty much always on my toes.  Rarely on my fingers.

There aren’t really any rules, except that you should post your dish by noon on Sunday, so that gives you all day Saturday to plan and shop and cook.  It wouldn’t be a challenge if you got a ton of time!  And obviously, it has to include both ingredients.

I had a tough time trying to decide what two things sounded good together but not totally obvious.  A little obvious is okay.  I also wanted to go with things that are currently in season. And it’s two and not one because I didn’t want to be like, “…TOFU!  GO!”  Because again, not much of a challenge.

The first secret ingredients are…

APPLES AND GINGER!

Both are in season in the fall, and they pair together nicely so I think this is a good one to get our feet wet on.  I’m going to do it but honestly I have no idea what to make and I didn’t go to the store early to keep it as fair as I can.  I’m really excited to see what everyone comes up with and I know most people think that apples automatically equal dessert, but i’m going to try something savory myself!

Also if you make a dish, post a link here after you upload it and i’ll pick some highlights (or all of them, depends on how many people do it!) and blog them.

Allez Végétalien Cuisine!

VeganMoFo: How do you ‘fu?

Published
by
Katie
on October 3, 2008
in food, pictures and veganmofo
. 14 Comments

As most vegan bloggers know, Isa has a new brunch book coming out and so a lot of us have been testing for it.  One of the recipes is a pesto tofu scramble which I loved, and I took from that my new favorite way to make tofu scramble.

At the commissary they usually have organic basil, in a big bunch, for a pretty good price.  Usually I can only find them in small packages and they’re so pricey.

I’m bad at planning when it comes to food.  I usually don’t go, “We are having this on Monday, this in Tuesday, etc.”  I just make what I want to eat right then and I never remember to make things ahead of time, like pesto .  So this is what I do:

I take a whole sweet onion, roughly chop it, and cook it in olive oil over mediumish heat.  I don’t usually wait for them to get completely caramelized, but I do let them get pretty soft.  I stir them occasionally while getting everything else together.  I add salt, pepper, a little bit of tumeirc and paprika for color.  Wait about ten minutes for them to get softer.  A couple of cloves of minced garlic.  I roll up the basil leaves and chop them (I don’t really count, maybe 20 leaves?) and throw them in too.  Let those things rock out together for a few more minutes and then add my lightly pressed crumbled tofu.  Stir it all to coat and then I let it alone except for the occasional stir for about fifteen minutes.  I like some of the tofu to get a little brown.  While that’s happening, I slice a tomato and arrange the slices on a plate.  Then when it’s ready, I put my scramble on top of the tomatoes so it warms them up a bit, because sometimes I don’t want cooked tomatoes but I don’t want them to be super cold either.

Now that tomatoes and basil are on their way out i’m going to have to switch to dried basil (not nearly as tasty) and nix the tomatoes, but I still think it’s pretty good.  I really like onions, if I have mushrooms or spinach that needs to be used those can go in too.  One time I did want cooked tomatoes so I put cherry tomatoes in there and white beans because apparently I really wanted protein.