Afternoon Delight

I've been away from my kitchen for awhile, out gallivanting on the other side of the country. While I was living the high life in New York and Boston, my kitchen in San Diego was lying dormant, the stove collecting dust. Yes, my husband was still at home while I was away, but he reverted to full bachelor mode and only used the kitchen to store empty pizza boxes.

This afternoon I made these chocolate chip pecan cookies as a little welcome home present for myself. They're a much needed comfort food because the delicious but greasy cuisine of New York left me with a heavy feeling in my stomach.

And I'm always looking for an excuse to break out the Big Red. It's serious about mixing.



There's no messing around here. Well, actually there was a small incident with the speed control that flung a few glops of cookie dough out of the bowl. But other than that I mean, there was no messing around.



The recipe is from "The Joy of Vegan Baking," by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. It makes my kind of cookie: crisp exterior with a soft and yielding interior. And we just discovered that if you eat enough of them straight out of the oven, there really isn't any need to eat dinner. A meal replacement cookie, sort of.

Long Duck Dong

I just noticed that all of my previous posts have been about breakfast and dessert, or dessert-like breakfasts. By looking at this blog you'd think I subsist solely on cupcakes, donuts, and waffles. And you'd be pretty much right.

But I do occasionally prepare myself a balanced meal for dinner.


I made a trip to the Asian market this weekend; I narrowly avoided a parking lot fender bender, bought baby bok-choy and a shitload of shiitake mushrooms on the cheap, marvelled at the 50lb sacks of rice, and bought canned seitan. It was quite a trip, as I'm sure you can imagine.


This vegetarian mock duck is made from wheat gluten, making it high in protein and cholesterol free (try not to be distracted by my amazingly long fingers). I had to dare myself to buy it, because who really buys canned faux duck? Before this weekend, certainly not the likes of me. But the can was only $1.39 so I figured I could take the risk.

The mock duck was pan-fried with some sliced shiitake mushrooms, and served alongside steamed rice and baby bok-choy with caramelized shallots and sesame seeds (recipe from Veganomicon cookbook). The mock duck/mushrooms were seasoned with soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, and a generous squirt of Sriracha hot sauce.

The verdict?

Pretty damn tasty for a $1.39. Two amazingly long thumbs up.

The Triumphant Tofu Omelet

You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and you're not at all hungry for breakfast?

Nope? Me neither.


This weekend's breakfast challenge was the vegan omelet. The recipe is a tester from The Crack of Noon, the vegan brunch cookbook from the Post Punk Kitchen. Yes, it is tofu based! But don't be scared, it actually tastes pretty good...


The omelet's flavor is derived from one secret ingredient that combines with everything else to mimic a traditional omelet in texture, taste, and likelihood to massively overeat. Kala namak, or black salt, adds the egg-y flavor but can be an elusive ingredient. I took a field trip to my local Indian market to pick some up. I went a little overboard in the spice aisle, picking up several little spice packets (so cute! so cheap!) but that's another story.

When the omelet was done, filled with sautéed mushrooms and covered in lots of fresh black pepper, it reminded me of the eggs that my dad makes. Which was sort of cool but sort of unsettling, being that it's been several years since my last experience with eggs. But my basic omelet instinct came back immediately, and I hoovered the tofu-melet down no problem.

Brought to you by the color Orange

I brought some of these tomato-rosemary scones to work with me. They seem to attract a lot of attention in the lunchroom due to their bright color, those attention whore scones. They are another tester from the upcoming cookbook "The Crack of Noon." The taste is a little bit like pizza.



The nasturtium in my garden is blooming, knowing full well the scones can barely compete when it comes to provocative color. Little do they know, nasturtium are edible flowers and I've got some plans for them. (and yeah, the scones are hanging out in the garden, they like it out there.)

These mystery flowers started blooming on a plant I've had for several years. For the longest time it was just a green, chronically dehydrated shrub. Then my husband took custody of the shrub, and it has blossomed under his tutelage.



Happy Spring!

Brunch is the Most Important Meal of the Day

My husband and my brother are both homebrewers; they make their own beer. They have just started the spring maintenance on their mini farm where they grow hops. My brother came over early this morning with big plans to get right to work.

I couldn't let them out the door on empty stomachs, and who really can say no to a hot plate of buckwheat pancakes?

The pancake recipe is from an upcoming vegan cookbook, The Crack of Noon, that's all about the fine cuisine of brunch. The blueberry topping is thawed frozen blueberries heated with a little agave nectar.

My brother, who contributed to the actual cooking of the flapjacks because I was dealing with a sink full of dirty dishes (damn those dishes!), gave them an enthusiastic endorsement.

Kickin it Old School

I went on my first motorcycle ride this weekend, a little joyride up the coast on the back of my husband's bike. I felt really badass, I almost forgot about the girly purple flowers airbrushed on my helmet. I've been known to have a dainty stomach, however, so when we got home I felt a little woozy. Too much racing around corners and knocking helmets. We head out on the highway, looking for adventure, and what comes my way is nausea.

So I whipped up a batch of fauxstess cupcakes because a sugar high makes everything feel better.