Pecan Chocolate Pie

Based on a recipe I found on AllRecipes - I substituted agave nectar for corn syrup and added more pecans. This was a big hit over the holidays.

1 unbaked pie crust
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup melted margarine
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup water
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup pecan halves
1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375
Beat eggs, sugar, salt, margarine, nectar and water. Stir in pecans and chocolate. Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake until set about 40-50 minutes. Cool before serving.

Hot Spinach Salad

I recipe was inspired by the wonderful Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco.

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 thinly sliced red onion
1 package smoked flavored tofu - diced(e.g. http://www.sunrise-soya.com/soy-products/soyganic.php)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional).
Salt to taste
Bowl of fresh washed spinach leaves for salad

Heat medium sized pan - add olive oil, and then quickly add onions. Cook onions until translucent. Add tofu and cook until warm. Add vinegar, mustard, and salt. Mix together and toss into spinach.

Vegetarian Jiaozi

We just got back from a trip to China, where we found a great Jiaozi restaurant in Beijing. Their vegetarian dumplings inspired me to try some at home. Here are a couple that tasted yummy!

Fillings for Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings).

Green Veggie Filling:
1 bunch spinach: rinsed, large stems removed
1/2 bunch cilantro: rinsed, large stems removed
1/2 bunch water cress: rinsed, large stems removed
1 handful of chives finely chopped.
1 tablespoon roasted sesame oil
salt to taste

Chop spinach, cilantro, water cress briefly in a food processor, in small batches. Add chopped chives and salt. Let sit for a few minutes. Using a strainer, squeeze water out of greens. Add sesame oil and mix in.

Mushroom Filling:
1 lb crimini mushrooms, cleaned
12 lb fresh shitake mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced.
3 cloves garlic, minced.
1 tablespoon cooking oil
Cooking sherry
Salt to taste

Chop crimini mushrooms in food processor. Saute in oil with sherry, garlic, and salt. When mostly cooked and water evaporated, add shitake and more cooking sherry as required. Cook until shitake is just tender. Cool filling before making dumplings.

Iron Aki's Birthday Bash

For my birthday I asked all the guests to bring an ingredient that I would make into a dish. I made 11 dishes that night. They are:
1. Edamame, cucumber, wakame salad
2. Hummous
3. Lichen, eggplant, seitan, stir-fry
4. Squash, tamarind, cocunut curry served on top of quinoa
5. Roast veggies with beets, carrots, rosemary, onions
6. Cauliflower tofu stir fry
7. Miayaki, shitake, sugar peas stir-fry
8. Fruit salad with mint, papaya, pomegranate syrup, flowers
9. Tomatillo mango salsa
10. Braised beans with roasted peppers, onions, tomato paste
11. Pressed salad with colabri, apple, red peppers, onions

Contributions:
Bev: Edamame
Dad and Mom: Lichen, Seitan, Eggplant
Sven: Rosemary (he cut from our garden)
Erik: Fresh Tamarind
John and Coral: Cooked Kidney Beans
Bob: Broccoli, Arugula, Cherry Toms, Basil, Colabri
Steve: Beets, Sweet Peppers, Carrots, Onions, Hot Peppers, Cucumber
Michi: Cauliflower
Jackie: Tomatillos, Hot Smoked Paprika (yum!)
Peter: Mango, Papaya
Carl: Eggplant, Miayaki
Kathleen and Robin: Pomegranate Syrup
Laura: Flowers, Anaheim peppers
John and Molly: Peppers, Cabbage
Trisha: Cooked Quinoa

It was a blast!

Lemon Cake with Fresh Stawberry Sauce

This cake was light, and had a nice lemony flavor. Add to that a fresh strawberry sauce, and it was delicious!

For Cake

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2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup oil

teaspoon vanilla

grated zest from one large lemon

juice from the same lemon

1 1/3 cup vanilla soy or rice milk

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare two 9 in cake pans (with oil and dusted with flour).

Whisk together all dry ingredients in large bowl. Whisk together oil, vanilla, juice, and zest in a smaller bowl. Add oil mixture to dry and stir until the flour is damp. Add "milk" slowly and mix until cake batter consistency. Pour evenly into two cake pans.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Reduce oven to 365 and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown on top. Cool on racks. Vegan cakes can break apart easily, so handle with car.

For Strawberry Sauce

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2 pints of fresh strawberries

1/4 cup sugar (to taste)

pinch salt

Rinse strawberries and remove stems. Take 1/2 the strawberries and 1/2 the sugar and puree in blender or food processor. Pour into bowl. Put the rest of the strawberries and sugar, and chop for a second or two in food processor. Add chopped strawberries to puree. Mix together and add a pinch of salt. Add more sugar if desired. Keep cool until serving.

When ready to serve, put one cake on serving dish. Cover with thick layer of sauce. Put next cake layer on top. Cover with more sauce. Serve with favorite whipped type topping (optional).

Almost Vegan Lasagna

My mother can't eat onions, my father is on a low-cholesterol diet, and Erik doesn't eat ricotta cheese (too much lactose). This yummy lasagna met all dietary restrictions.

1/2 package Lasagna noodles, cooked per instructions on box.

Tofu filling

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2 packages of fresh extra firm tofu

1 bag of spinach leaves, washed, steamed, squeezed dry, chopped

teaspoon salt

Sauce

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2 6oz cans tomato paste

5 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon each of dried thyme and oregano

1/3 cup red cooking wine

4 cans of water (about 1 1/2 cups)

salt to taste

1 1/2 packages of soy mozzarella, grated.

1-2 oz of regular low moisture mozzarella (optional), grated.

To prepare sauce:

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan. Add more water if too thick, but thick is good. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

To prepare filling:

Combine tofu, spinach, salt together in bowl. Crumble tofu and combine with spinach until the tofu is all a uniform size (small).

To prepare casserole:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large lasagna pan, layer the ingredients as follows: sauce, noodles, stuffing, soy cheese. Repeat. Put a little real mozzarella on the top layer, so it melts/browns better. Bake for 40 minutes or until top is brown and cheese nicely melted.

Update 12/09/2010

Home made pasta makes this lasagna even better. Here is a recipe from Jackie DeCiccio

2 cups white flour

1 cup semolina flour

3 eggs

Water

In a large mixing bowl, fix the flour together. Break in the eggs in the center. Using a fork, mix the egg with the flour, starting in the center and working out. Add enough water to make a stiff, but not sticky dough. Knead the dough into a ball. Cut ball of dough in half - wrap 1/2 in plastic so it doesn't dry. Process the other 1/2 through favorite pasta making machine to make lasagna noodles.

Frozen Peach Pie

Sven wanted Peach Pie in the middle of the winter. So, we bought frozen peaches but added fresh ginger and a meyers lemon to make it tasty. We were pleased the results.

Preheat oven to 375

Double pie crust for a 9 inch pie

2 packages of frozen Cascadian Farns Organic Peach Slices (or equivalent)

1 meyers lemon (zest and juice)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons corn starch (or more if watery)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Put in bottom pie crust. Cover with top crust and pierce with a fork several times. Brush crust with milk or water.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until brown.