Join the Apron Activists for a holiday bake sale at The Bye & Bye, Saturday December 12th from 2pm until only crumbs are left!

There will be tempting treats as far as they eye can see. You can pick up boxes of cookies to send as gifts or just pop in for a cupcake! This bakesale is not to be missed. Biscotti! Donuts! Muffins! Cinnamon rolls! Pumpkin Pie! Gingerbread! We’ll have it all.

We’ll be raising money for the Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary, a scenic haven south of Portland OR that provides safe harbor to farm animals, each with a story to tell. We’re very excited to lend them our support!

To participate: Tie on your favorite apron and bake up some vegan goodness. Bring your treats to the Bye-N-Bye between 2 and 4pm (we’ll be selling until we’re sold out!) It would be really cool if you could provide a printed out ingredients list, too, that way if people have allergies or preferences they can size up their options.

Spread the word, thanks!

PS There will be Fauxstess! Also, check out my photos from Lighthouse last year.

Scrambled tofu is probably one of the most mundane vegan recipes there is. Go ahead and roll your eyes when you open a cookbook and see the obligatory entry, I know I do, even at my own. But for a new vegan it’s one of the most important dishes to learn. And for me, even though my inaugural tofu was scrambled 20 years ago, it’s still a staple.

It’s one of those things that changes with you, kind of like a culinary mood ring. My scramble used to feel incomplete without mushrooms, but lately I prefer a simpler texture, even onions aren’t a necessity anymore. I went through a broccoli era, and used to take a hardline anti-red pepper stance, but lately the cruciferous is out and nightshades are in.

But you don’t have to stop at breakfast, or limit yourself to a plate of scramble and hashbrowns. Look at scrambled tofu with fresh eyes! Here’s a few ways to spruce up your scramble, or use up your leftovers.

Serve in a squash bowl: Serve in half a baked squash (acorn or carnival would work perfectly.) Caramelized onions would be nice, too.
Breakfast burritos: Wrap up with potatoes, fresh salsa and guacamole.
Add to mac and cheese: Use up leftover scramble (or make some scramble just for the occasion!) by adding it to your favorite vegan mac and cheese recipe.
Lettuce wraps: Tuck scramble into lettuce, serve with fresh tomatoes and drizzle with vinaigrette
Make a sandwich: Not the most ingenious idea, but one of my favorites! A scramble sandwich with avocado, red onion and sprouts.
Make a knish: Make potato knishes and add a layer of scramble
Stuff peppers: Mix with a can of black beans and some salsa. Stuff into red peppers, bake and top with a little vegan cheese at the end.
Crepe filling: Serve in a crepe, with a vegan hollandaise sauce.

And in case you don’t have enough scrambled tofu recipes in your repertoire, here’s another for good measure (from Vegan Brunch.)

Basic Scrambled Tofu
Serves 4
For me, a basic scramble should have nice big pieces in it. It’s crumbled, yes, but not completely in crumbles. Just kind of torn apart and then broken up a bit when cooking in the pan. The flavor should be lip smacking and just a bit salty, but not overly so. Garlic, some cumin, a little thyme - that is the base. From there you can do countless variations using whatever is in your fridge that morning.

So this is my basic recipe. When you want a trustworthy and easy to modify standard scramble, this makes a great go-to.

Spice blend:
2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed with your fingers

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced (or more, to taste)

1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained

1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Fresh black pepper to taste

First stir the spice blend together in a small cup. Add water and mix. Set aside.

Preheat a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat. Saute the garlic in olive oil for about a minute. Break the tofu apart into bite sized pieces and saute for about 10 minutes, using a spatula to stir often. Get under the tofu when you are stirring, scrape the bottom and don’t let it stick to the pan, that is where the good, crispy stuff is. Use a thin metal spatula to get the job done, a wooden or plastic one won’t really cut it. The tofu should get browned on at least one side, but you don’t need to be too precise about it. The water should cook out of it and not collect too much at the bottom of the ban. If that is happening, turn the heat up and let the water evaporate.

Add the spice blend and mix to incorporate. Add the nutritional yeast and fresh black pepper. Cook for about 5 more minutes. Serve warm.

You can include these additions to your scramble by themselves or in combination with one another.

Broccoli - Cut about one cup into small florettes, thinly slice the stems. Add along with the tofu.
Onion - Finely chop one small onion. Add along with the garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes, until translucent. Proceed with recipe.
Red Peppers - Remove stem and seed, finely chop one red pepper. Add along with the garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Proceed with recipe.
Mushrooms - Thinly slice about a cup of mushrooms. Add along with the tofu.
Olives - Chop about 1/3 a cup of sliced olives. Add towards the end of cooking, after mixing in the nutritional yeast.
Spinach - Add about 1 cup of chopped spinach towards the end of cooking, after mixing in the nutritional yeast. Cook until completely wilted.
Carrots - Grate half of an average sized carrot into the scramble towards the end of cooking. This is a great way to add color to the scramble.
Avocado - I almost always have avocado with my scramble. Just peel and slice it and serve on top.

You may or may not know that I’m working on a low fat cookbook. I was deeply concerned that this meant goodbye to some of my favorite dishes but with a few tricks, a lot of creativity and many hours searching thriftstores for 80s diet cookbooks, I’ve been able to keep myself satisfied and I don’t feel like I’m sacrificing much.

For instance, no one should suffer a life without pesto, but a pesto without pinenuts or walnuts seems lifeless. So what’s a girl to do? Once again, it’s soybeans to the rescue! Edamame has just enough fat and texture to make a lighter healthier pesto work. It also makes the pesto at once bulky and creamy. It’s a miracle, really. Oh, little soybean, what can’t you do?

In this dish I’ve sauteed some mushrooms for meatiness and red onions for a little tinge of sweetness. But you can use edamame pesto as a dip or as a topping for a baked potatoes, or as a filling for lasagna, or anywhere else that pesto would be appropriate. It’s really easy and versatile, too. It may not taste exactly like the super oily pesto we all know and love, but it tastes pretty darn good and it’s got a fraction of the fat so it won’t leave you feeling like you’re about to give birth to a pesto baby. Did I just ruin your appetite forever?

Spinach Linguine With Edamame Pesto
Serves 4

For the edamame pesto:
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup packed basil leaves
Handful (1/4 cup or so) fresh cilantro
14 oz package shelled edamame, thawed
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
optional: 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

For the pasta:
10 oz spinach linguine or other pasta

1 teaspoon olive oil
Small red onion, in thinly sliced half moons
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
Extra basil for garnish

Cooking spray

Put on a pot of salted water to boil. Then prepare the pesto:

Place garlic and basil in food processor and pulse a few times to get it chopped up. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until relatively smooth, scraping down the sides with a spatula to make sure you get everything. Add a little more vegetable broth if it seems too stiff. Set aside until ready to use.

Preheat a large pan over medium heat. At this point your pasta water should be ready, so add the linguine.

Saute onion in oil for about 5 minutes. Use a little cooking spray as needed, or a splash of water if you prefer. Mix in mushrooms, garlic, thyme and salt. Cover pot and cook 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

The pasta should be ready now, so drain it.

When the mushrooms have cooked down, add pasta to the pan, along with the pesto. Use a pasta spoon to stir and coat the linguine. Get everything good and mixed and the pesto heated through, about 3 minutes. The pesto should be relatively thick, but if it’s too thick (not spreading out and coating the pasta) add a few tablespoons of water. Taste for salt.

Serve immediately, garnished with a little fresh chopped basil.

Once the leaves start changing I’m jonesing for earthy, comforting flavors. Luckily, the farmer’s markets are spilling over with all manner of funny shaped, tantalizing mushrooms. The biggest crime in the world is throwing them into a stew, where they’ll get hopelessly lost.

My favorite way to enjoy fresh mushrooms, like chanterelle, porcini or trumpet, is super simple: sauteed in olive oil with lots of garlic, a little salt and pepper, fresh thyme and a splash of white wine. Finish it off with a squeeze of lemon juice. I like to serve them with a farmer’s market plate; some roasted squash, grilled peppers and some mashed root veggies. You don’t need to employ the entire spice rack when you’re cooking with farm fresh ingredients, it’s much more important to learn the simple cooking methods that coax the most flavor out of them. I’m going to cover a few of those methods through out the month. Won’t you join me?

White Wine Garlic Chanterelles

Serves 2 as a side, or 4 as a garnish

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

6 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 pound chantrelles, stems sliced 1/4 inch thick, tops 1/2 inch thick (you can use any fancy shmancy mushroom here)

big pinch salt

several dashes fresh black pepper

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme

1/2 a lemon

Preheat a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium heat (cast iron is awesome.) Saute the garlic in the olive oil for about a minute. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The moisture should release from the mushrooms and they should be tender but still firm.

Add white wine and turn the heat up. Cook for about 3 more minutes, stirring often. Add the thyme and squeeze the lemon juice in. Taste for salt and serve warm.

When we do favors we do them out of the kindness of our heart and shouldn’t really expect much in return, but wouldn’t a thank you be so much more heartfelt if you could eat it? Cookies show that you really mean it. Mean it enough to spend a half hour in the kitchen whipping up a batch.

I’ve been trying to make it a point to thank people more often, which means baking more often. This week I had two people to thank but I didn’t really have anything fancy to pack the cookies in. Yes, a plastic baggy full of cookies is a wonderful gift, but I wanted something a little more impressive. Turns out that empty tea boxes are the perfect vehicle for cookies and they’re the kind of thing everyone has around the house. And if they’re not empty, pull out a couple of bags and voila!

To make them even cuter, and also to provide a little padding, line the bottom with a few extra tea packets that you think will go well with the cookies. Here I’ve chosen some cranberry tea to go with cranberry white chocolate cookies. You can’t see them because they’re hidden but I promise they are there! You can use the inside of the box as your card. This one was for the guy at the bike shop that put my seat on after it had been stolen. He also put on my lights, which is very cool because usually trying to figure out those light straps ends with me and a roll of duct tape and a lot of cursing. But the reason I really wanted to thank him was that if you’ve ever been an idiot in a bike shop, you’ll notice that the employees pretty much treat you like an idiot in a bike shop. But this guy was really nice about it, so he gets cookies!

Some glittery kitty cat stickers would have been cute, too.

On this, the first evening of VeganMoFo, how about figuring out who you could thank? Even if it’s for some silly reason. Hint: No one has ever baked me cookies!

It’s that time of year again! Time to wear down your stove and your keyboard. Time to mow people down with your shopping cart. Time to answer the age old question: do lemon and chocolate taste good together? It’s time for VeganMoFo, the Vegan Month Of Food.

The idea is to write as much as you can for the month of October about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related - your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu - you get the idea. There is no strict guideline for how much you have to write, but we shoot for about 20 times a month, or every weekday.

This year the master list of participants is being hosted by Kittee, Cake Maker To The Stars. So get on over there for more details and to sign up!  You don’t have to be vegan to join, just so long as you are writing about vegan food for the month. Happy MoFoing!

OK so I am getting back into the video world with a very appropriate, prim and proper little video about cookies! Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, to be exact. And I blather on about the Aztecs and autumn a bit in the video so I won’t overdo it here. But let me just say that they are one of my absolute favorites in the book, you probably already have all the ingredients, and I hope you make them!

A beautiful crackle topped chocolate cookie with a spicy cayenne kick and a sugary cinnamon coating. Sold?

For the topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cookies:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons almond milk (Or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate)
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the topping ingredients together on a flat plate. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil,  sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix in extracts.

Sift in remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added mix until you’ve got a pliable dough.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Pat into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2 inch discs. Transfer to baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, they should be a bit spread and crackly on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

The cookie book is off to the printers and we are thoroughly excited about sharing a few more recipes with you. For those who were at the Toronto Veggie Food Fair, did you catch Terry and her cooking/baking demos? Here she is kissing our book cover at the Book Expo this past summer.

It will be out in stores in early November, but you can preorder the book on Amazon or where ever you like! Now on to today’s recipe.

 Pignoli Almond Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

You may simply knows these are “pignoli,” the rice almond buttery cookie with the dense, chewy center and a smattering of pine nuts. I’ve been missing Brooklyn a lot lately, especially around autumn, and these cookies are an Italian (and Jewish) bakery staple. The bakeries in Brooklyn are a little bit different from the kind of hoity toity 4-dollar-cookie bakery we find across the country these days. For one thing, you could buy cookies by the pound. And for another, the cases were overflowing. It wasn’t about buying one cookie to nibble on while you pretended to work on your lap top. It was buying a box, tied up with red string, to bring and share where ever you were going. It wasn’t a birthday party (or a funeral) if it didn’t end with a big cardboard box of colorful, chewy, chunky, crispy, crumbly cookies.

Pingolis were a staple in that box. If you know what I’m talking about you’re probably already in the kitchen unwrapping your almond paste. If you don’t, well, try these heavenly bites and join us.

Note: These cookies are super-soft right out of the oven, so be sure to allow them a full five minutes to firm up on the cookie sheet before transferring to racks to complete cooling.

7 ounces almond paste, sliced into 1 inch cubes (not marzipan)

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine, softened

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2  cup pine nuts

2 to 3 tablespoons almond milk for dipping

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a medium sized baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pulse almond paste, salt, baking powder and 1/3 cup sugar in a food processor until mixture is crumbly, about 1 minute.

In a large bowl cream together margarine and remaining 1/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add almond paste mixture and almond extract and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Sift in flour and beat until a slightly crumbly yet soft dough forms. Dough should form a soft mass when pressed together.

Pour pine nuts into a shallow bowl and pour 2 Tablespoons of almond milk into a small saucer. For each cookie, roll 1 tablespoon of dough in palms to form into a ball, dip one end in almond milk and press moistened end into pine nuts. If necessary press pine nuts into surface of ball. Place dough balls, pine nut side up, on baking sheet at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 14 minutes until cookies have puffed and spread a little, and nuts are are just slightly toasted. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes to firm up before carefully transferring to cooling rack. Store in a tightly covered container.

From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT, THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

The Apron Activists are back! This time we’re tying on our apron strings to raise money for the Chimp Sanctuary Northwest. CSNW is currently home to seven chimpanzees released from biomedical research. This group, the Cle Elum Seven, arrived at the sanctuary on June 13, 2008. Please visit their excellent website to learn more about these seven brave individuals.

Once again, we will transform Sweetpea Baking Company into a candlelit bistro and you will be waited on hand and foot by Herbivore, Food Fight and Scapegoat staffers. The menu will feature all the lush, local seasonal flavors that Portland has to offer. Ambrosial root veggies, toasty hazelnut, creamy butternut, earthy mushrooms, and who can resist cinnamony apple pie in October? Come savor the warm flavors of fall and know that each delicious forkful is helping make the world a better place.

All profits will go directly to the sanctuary. Tickets will be $25 per person, but we encourage diners to pay as much as possible. For those who pay $50 per person, there will be a generous assortment of home baked cookies and stickers and buttons from Herbivore Clothing Co. Plus, we’re working on gift bags for those who give $100 or more.

THE MENU

Bread Basket
Mushroom walnut pate, carrot ginger spread, baguette, matzoh, flatbreads

Salad
Root Vegetable & Caramelized Figs
Mixed greens, endive, creamy garlic dressing, cilantro pesto drizzle

Entree
Butternut Rissoto
Cashew creme, roasted brussel sprouts, toasted hazelnuts

Dessert
Apple Pie with Peanut Butter Caramel
Homemade vanilla bean ice cream with a creamy coconut cashew almond base

When:

Friday, October 16th. Please arrive at 7:00 PM for a reception with the Chimp Sanctuary staffers. Dinner will be served at 7:30 PM.

Where:
Sweetpea Baking Company

1205 SE Stark off SE 12th Ave
Google Map

Ticket Prices
Since seating limited, you must buy tickets in advance to attend the night’s festivities. Tickets are a sliding scale, from 25 to 100 dollars. Diners who pay 50 dollars or more will also be receiving a goodie bag and 100 dollars or more will get you an even better goodie bag.

To Purchase Tickets
To purchase tickets, paypal 25 to 100 dollars to postpunkkitchen@gmail.com. Please put “October Dinner” in the subject. You’ll just need to give your name at the door when you arrive (no need to print out a ticket.) You can also drop by Herbivore to pay for tickets.

Seating
If you are buying tickets for more than yourself, please put their names in the paypal comments and a table will be arranged for you. If you would like to sit with people in addition to the ones you are purchasing tickets for, please put their names in the comments as well, and let me know that you want to sit with them. If you are flying solo, you may end up sitting with strangers at the community table. But we promise that they will be fascinating strangers.

Allergies And Substitutions
Please email us with any dietary needs you have and we will do our best to accommodate you. Gluten free, soy-free and nut-free options are available.

Alcohol
Please bring your own beer and wine. Also bring any other beverage you like.
Any other questions? Just email us! postpunkkitchen@gmail.com. Thanks for your support!

I have a few guiding principles and one is “You’re never too busy to update your blog.” I mean, spacing out over a game of Facebook Scrabble rather than talking about split pea soup is pretty much the extent of it. So I am not going to start this by saying I’ve been too busy, more like it’s fallen to the wayside and every time I think about it I get this little pang of guilt. Which brings me to another guiding principle which is “No one cares if you update your blog.” I mean, really. With that weight off my shoulders, it was a lot easier to update this god forsaken thing.

Okay, so maybe I’m not busy, but my mom sure as hell was. Three kids, two jobs, no husband to speak of (well, none that was any help)…you know the story. So most of the action that our stove top saw came from a box. Still, it was fun to help her put away groceries, open cartons and put together dinner. And because chopping veggies and throwing a bunch of spices and pasta into a pan would take 15 minutes of time and energy she didn’t have, we’d dump in the box of Hamburger Helper and that was that. So yeah, I was practically raised by that happy little oven mitt with a face.

Is this a good father figure?

Now, of course, I know better. That box is wasteful and full of nasty ingredients and that happy face oven mitt is actually planning on strangling you.  And of course meat is murder. But I still get a taste for the helper; the comforting aroma, the meaty bites, the chewy pasta that maybe gets a little burned on the bottom of the pan. And oh yeah, let me top that off with a velvety processed cheese food product.

My version still comes together in one pot. I use tempeh for a succulent bite and, although I usually cringe at the idea of granulated garlic and onion flakes, that’s what really gives this authenticity. Tiny quinoa shells are quick cooking thanks to their diminutive size, and a nice healthy (and gluten free!) alternative to semolina pasta, but you can use whatever kind you like (even though I just totally looked down on all other pastas.) No chopping or prepping required, just throw a handful of frozen peas in at the end to give a little green. If you’d like to quadruple this mix to have on hand, keep it refrigerated and just scoop out a heaping 1/4 cup full whenever you get the hankering.

The cheezy sauce is super simple, too, and because the whole meal is so very Rachael Ray, I gave it a silly sounding title. What I really love about the sauce is that there is no added fat, because we all love that New Farm recipe, but we don’t necessarily need a stick of margarine for dinner. If tempeh is usually too bitter for you, you can steam the tempeh for 10 minutes before proceeding. Make the sauce while the pasta is is cooking and you should have this on the table in about 30 minutes.

Tempeh Helper
Makes 4 roughly one cup servings (serves 2 if you’re super hungry)

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz tempeh
3 cups water
6 oz small shell pasta, or about a cup (I used quinoa pasta)
A handful frozen peas, about 1/4 cup

For the seasoning mix:
2 teaspoons onion flakes
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon mild chili powder
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoon broth powder (I used Frontier chicken-style broth)
2 teaspoons arrowroot or corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Have a lid at the ready because you’ll need to cover it at some point.

Drizzle the oil in the pan and tear the tempeh into bite sized pieces, adding them to the pan. Saute for about 5 minutes, until tempeh is lightly browned. In the meantime, mix the seasoning together in a mixing bowl.

Add a few tablespoons of water to the tempeh to deglaze the pan. Add the 3 cups of water and seasoning mix, giving a good stir to get it all mixed in. Add the pasta and cover. Bring the heat up to a boil. Once boiling, you can reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring once. Remove the lid, and cook until the sauce is reduced and thickened to your liking, usually about 3 minutes. Taste for salt.

Serve topped with Eazy Breezy Cheezy Sauce.

Eazy Breezy Cheezy Sauce
Makes 2 cups

3/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
2 teaspoons onion flakes
1/4 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1/8 ground turmeric
2 tablespoons broth powder (I used Frontier chicken-style broth)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon yellow mustard

Add nutritional yeast, flour, garlic, onion flakes, salt, turmeric and broth powder to a bowl and mix together. Add 2 cups water and use a fork to mix and beat out any big lumps. Once relatively smooth, pour into a 2 quart sauce pot. Turn heat up to medium high and stir often for about 5 minutes. Once boiling, bring it down to a slow boil. It should start bubbling and thickening. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring almost constantly, until it has a thick, smooth melted cheese consistency.

Mix in mustard and taste for salt. Serve hot or warm.