Tasty Thursday: Nut Butter Cookies

Nut Butter Cookies

1 1/3 cup flour

3/4 cup dry sweetener--I use regular granulated sugar

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/2 cup margarine--I use Fleichmans Light

1 1/4 cup nut butter, your choice (e.g., peanut, almond)--I use Kroger creamy PB

1 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sweetener, baking soda, and salt. Add the margarine (I waited until it had softened to room temperature so that it was easier to mix up), nut butter, and vanilla, and stir together until well mixed. I added a cup of vegan chocolate chips. Spoon a heaping tablespoon (I used a small cookie baller, packed in) of dough onto a cookie sheet and press flat with your fingers. Use a fork to make a criss-cross pattern on top of each cookie. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are browned. Let cool before removing from cookie sheet (seriously! let these cool or they'll simply break apart when you slide the spatula under them...wait the full 5 minutes). Makes 10-18 cookies, depending on size.

From The Garden of Vegan, p. 184, my notes/modifications in red

Friend Friday: Zeppelyn

Because I've had such a hard time keeping up with the "Friend Friday" posts, this will be my last weekly entry. That said, I may still occasionally drop in and talk about an awesome friend here or there...

Onward now, to the final post!

Zeppelyn. I know...a rockin' name! The thing is, for professional reasons, I am not linking Zeppelyn. I know, I know, but I want to honor her privacy, since this is my personal website and not hers!

Anyways....Zeppelyn and I met in the Spring 2011--I know, so very recently--in a Doctoral Research Seminar (essentially it was a Prospectus writing course). Now, I'll share with you the little known fact that neither of us finished our Prospectus, but we kicked some tail in figuring out how to write our dissertations----we got this!

So, how can I be such good friends with someone I just met? I don't know really...it just happened, and I'm guessing she didn't bargain for a classroom friendship either! But, I adore her, her mister, her choice of local establishments, and her conversation! And, hopefully, it'll continue for many years into the future!


PS ROCK the Prelims, Zeppelyn!

Mushroom Gravy

From *La Dolce Vegan* p. 181.

Malloreigh's Mushroom Gravy

2 T vegan margarine
4-6 button mushrooms, finely chopped
3 T flour
1 T nutritional yeast
1/4 t ground black pepper **or to taste!
1 t tamari **or soy sauce
1 c vegetable stock

In a medium saucepan on medium-high heat, saute the mushrooms in margarine until soft. Add the flour, nutritional yeast, pepper, and tamari; stir constantly until thickened. Which in stock 1/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly until thickened. Blend in food processor if you want smooth gravy or serve as is. Makes approximately 1 & 1/2 cups.


**my tips...add a 1/4 cup of the stock before adding the flour, nutritional yeast, pepper, and tamari--doing so thus far has enabled me to NOT need to blend it in the food processor, but then....I really like mushrooms, so that could really influence one's decision to blend.

This works great with southern fried tofu, mashed potatoes, and a fresh steamed vegetable!

Friend Friday: Yea Wen

Yea Wen is awesome! We met in grad school, while working on our Master's degrees, and we've been close ever since. She is always smiling and happy and just such a joy to be around.


(I also realize that this is a week late and weak in writing....forgive me!?)

I really, really do LOVE Yea Wen!!!

Thursday Treat: A Recipe

So, last week, Dr.Blueberry made a weird sandwich...well, weird to me. It was an open-faced "roast-beef" sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy on top. Here's how it happened... I met up with a local friend at one of the "dives" around town while she and her partner were having lunch. For lunch they were having open-faced sandwiches (turkey I believe) with fries and gravy... I thought, um, well, at first I thought "yum" and then I realized the caloric content and thought "yuck." When I came home, I told Dr.B about the sandwiches, and in his adorable excited kitchen way, he replied that he could make that...vegan!

So, onward!

Basically, he took two slices of sandwich bread, topped it with some thinly sliced seitan (warmed in a skillet and soaked in Braggs), then topped (I asked for mine to be on the side) that with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy (I don't think I've shared my favorite of the gravy recipes yet, so I'll do that next week!). We served it with some hominy--yum!

It was kinda delicious!

Here's a picture!

365 Pictures: This Week

Open-faced "roast beef" sandwich with hominy, mashed potatoes, and gravy--vegan--recipe forthcoming!

What are these little balls?

sadness on campus...lots of trees getting chopped. :(

the other half of Dr.Blueberry's bday--a trip to see the Southern Illinois Miners. Great seats. 4 rows back, behind home plate.

Homemade (vegan) Pakoras....with some chutney. Well, "homemade" meaning we chopped the zucchini, carrots, potatoes and broccoli ourselves--we bought the pakora batter.

I'm working on a baby blanket for one of my longest friends!

An afternoon at the Egyptian Day Spa. So delightful!

Tasty Restaurant/Recipe Thursday!

Here's an edit to my Thursday Recipe blogging idea... Dr.Blueberry and I eat out pretty regularly and travel really regularly, and since I talk a little bit about vegan food and dining options here, I think it's time I added a new "regular" topic: Restaurant Thursday or Recipe Thursday. This idea kinda arrived after our recent road travels, when I noticed that HappyCow has such strict guidelines about what gets added to their site--a practice that I do not intend to critique, as I recognize the value of the rules they set forth for adding restaurants.

Here's what happened...Dr.Blueberry and I were traveling through Springfield, MO last week, and there were only three dining options available to us. I called all three, and only two of them were open that day; and to make matters worse, the person I spoke with at each location, said, "Well, we have this one vegan option, and some salads that could be made vegan," a sentiment which always frustrates me. So, I decided instead to use the UrbanSpoon (currently linked to St Louis in my computer, since it's the closest big city) website to find a Thai-style restaurant to sit down at---I mean, Thai food=delicious tofu + fresh sauteed veggies + tasty, tasty seasoning and herbs...YUM! And, we happened upon a pretty good spot (Tasia). While we were sitting there, Dr.Blueberry said, "We should start contributing to [those websites]," and so I snapped pictures of the menu, the room, and one of our plates... (pictures and review forthcoming next week).

And, that's the beginning of this bloggers idea...I can't take all the "cred"--Dr.Blueberry is the creative mastermind!

:)

Oh, and where did we eat? Tasia in Springfield, MO... Here are the menus and pictures of some of the food!

Friend Friday: X

I don't have any friends whose name begins with X, so I'm going to skip today!

See ya next week!