cookies they smudge

Last week I attended what was supposed to be a small, homey get together. The anti-rager, I kept calling it, the kind of party where the "partying" consists of sitting around cozily and lazily, listening to records, wearing sweaters, drinking vegan-nog, recapping your holiday gifts (regiving your unwanted gifts, perhaps?) and, yes, eating cookies, some vegan, others, not so much:


It was still the holidays back then, and I suppose it is now, because I certainly am still eating cookies. Unlike my sister's fancy day-tracker, I know the time of year by the telltale culinaria (winter = baking, summer = juicing, autumn/spring = salads!). Suffice to say, the party soon dropped the anti and was just a rager, but never fear, the cookies still were eaten and compliments were heartily passed around.

So as to arrive fashionably and foodily late, I decide to whip up a batch of Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance before heading over, one of my favorite cookbooks and a simple, tried and true recipe at that. I was extra excited to make this recipe because Em and I each received Silpats for Christmas, something I've been wanting for a long time, but was never really sure if I wanted to drop $25 at Foster's on just one item. Silpats are amazing because they transform our shoddy, kinda busted cookie trays into non-stick producers of moist, chewy and golden victuals. Unfortunately, due to my desire to get every last dish done in the 10-12 minutes the cookies were to bake, I didn't really check or rotate the trays as I should have, and a whole dozen burned to little flat pancakes of sadness. However, the two trays on the top tier of the oven must have had a bit more moxy, as they turned out reasonably well and definitely edible. See:

Later, at the party, I was lamenting the loss of those poor dead cookies and how much it sucks to throw any food away, especially something you just got done making. A nice lady told me that with the Silpat, you should reduce your baking time, or at the very least, check in on your goods about 5 minutes before the recipe says to. So, now I'll have to try again, and again, and again and maybe again after that. Just because the holiday season is winding down doesn't mean i can't continue to enjoy cookies! Cookies for all I say! Moist, delicious, well baked cookies for all!

Sparkled Ginger Cookies
makes 2 dozen cookies

4 tablespoons turbinado or demerrara sugar (regular sugar works well but coarse is best and most sparkly)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup soy milk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two cookie sheets. Place the turbinado sugar in a small bowl. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the oil, molasses, soy milk, sugar, and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and combine well. Roll into 1-inch balls, flatten into a 1 1/2-inch-diameter disk, press the cookie tops into the turbinado sugar and place 1 inch apart sugar side up on a prepared cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes, let cool on cookie sheets for 3 to 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

the dolphin studio calendar

one of the finest gifts i received at christmas this year was from my dear sissy lauren, a gorgeous, handmade thing that will continue to please me all year long. it is the annual calendar made by the ffrench family, a clan of artists and makers living in massachusetts, under the moniker of the dolphin studio. i highly suggest visiting their sweet little website, and insist that you consider purchasing the calendar. the large format is awesome and the prints are just beautiful. each family member is responsible for designing and printing certain months, and i think my favorites are by primm, the mother of the ffrenchs. her design for the month of june is especially lovely, thick gold and white ink on dramatic crimson paper:


however, i was happy to see that on the first page is a steaming bowl of something, i'm assuming good, hearty, cold-busting soup. it just seems like the perfect way to usher in the new year - a symbol of warmth, security, and care:



love,
emily

food rez

so i don't do this on an annual basis but this year i am making a new year's resolution...well, a new years food resolution:

in 2009, i will start using more dried beans. yeah, canned beans are super convenient, but the dried variety are significantly cheaper and way healthier. the only thing really standing in my way is the pre-planning it takes (to soak them overnight) and the extra time to boil them to an edible texture. perhaps it's time to invest in a pressure cooker...?

love,
emily

nye party tonight!

come join the VR crew and 100 of our best friends tonight for a new years rager!! it's all going down at 4500 kingsessing ave. in west philly (right across from clark park!).


2 floors of dancing, lotsa booze (including something called a "gin bucket"), balloons, confetti, and a video countdown at midnight.

...and who knows, maybe even some fireworks??

either way, it's sure to be totally awesome and your are invited!
afterwards, we may all end up looking like this:

!! happy new years to you all !!

love,
emily

gem of a jam

my friend and co-worker janina (the brains/brawn behind local, small batch jam company, little isobel) gave me a late christmas gift today, presented in a small brown bag adorned with my name written in cursive. inside, i found 4 treasures - mostly edible, hurrah!! - all handmade and cute as can be. there was a beautiful, slender bottle of creamy, dreamy coquito (veganized, bless her dear heart), a jar of mincemeat, and a jar of sparkling bath salts scented with grown up oils like lavender and sandalwood.

but the kicker, the real cherry on top, was a teensy, tiny jar of alpine strawberry jam. it is so f-ing precious, i kind of can't handle it (i am an unabashed lover of needlessly tiny objects):

{it may be hard to
tell but this adorable
jar only holds
like 2 ounces}

as i soon learned (from the jam master herself), this jar is not needlessly tiny. it is, in fact, need-fully (or whatever) tiny, because apparently alpine strawberries are very rare and very, very expensive. they are so small and delicate, she explained, that they bruise at even the slightest rough touch. once bruised, they soon disintegrate and are then worthless. most farmers won't mess with the alpine strawberry because of the painstaking effort it takes to harvest them and the subsequent price that must be charged to compensate for the tedium and time consumption. lucky for us, janina's fav farmer paul has the guts to raise these tender babies, and janina has the guts to spend a whopping sum to obtain them.

i just now ate a wee spoonfull of this stuff and...whaaa!?! these dainty fruits do not produce a dainty flavor. the strawberry flavor is in there, but the taste is closer to candy than to a product of nature. janina described it as "a cross between smarties and a fruit roll up," and while i do detect those notes, there is also depth and intensity rarely found in those kinds of sweets. in fact, i don't think i've ever tasted anything like it, natural or synthetic. and like all little isobel jams and preserves, the texture is simply perfect, and the amount of sweetness is spot on - the woman can jam the shit out of some fruit! and thankfully, others are starting to take notice.

so i just wanted to share this special little treat with you all (thank you again j), and alert you of the wondrous gems known as alpine strawberries.

love,
emily

the forest for the chreese

Sometimes you wake up at 11:30 are kind of hungover (ok, really hungover). And so, with a hazy imprudent choice, you decide to skip breakfast and go straight to your 12pm co-op shift on an empty stomach. And sometimes, by the time that co-op shift ends two hours later, you've been eyeing up so many different things to take home to make for your angry, empty belly that you spend $67.91 on a variety of lunch options.

This past Saturday, my day unfortunately mirrored the aforementioned scenario. After arriving home, practically salivating due to hunger and succumbing to that just-went-shopping-and-i-want-to-eat-it-all desire, i ate some chips and hummus (half the tub counts as "some", right?), some wildly spicy vegan jerky, a piece of our stepdad Kevin's famous vegetable pizza (two shoutouts in the last two posts is a lot, but it's because the man works magic!), until i finally settled my sights on that old simple favorite. Mac & cheese (no, not this kind) or should I say, ahem, Shells & Chreese.

I heard a friend talking about Chreese products a few months ago, the hilarious Who's On First style "Are you saying trees or cheese?" discussion ensued, and i subsequently forgot about the product altogether. I usually desire only to make mac & cheese from scratch, with a velvety nooch yeast and earth balance roux style sauce, and if i'm feeling particularly fancy, homemade breadcrumbs and tomatoes on top with a quick spin in the 375 degree oven (or if i'm feeling particularly trashy, tofu pups and ketchup mixed in!). All i was feeling on Saturday was a specific laziness that is mostly found in teenagers sleeping till 3 on weekends or twentysomethings sleeping off the past night's rager. Throw a little Frank's Red Hot on and thar she blows:

I'm not one for reviews, but i could probably muster up three sentences about this product:
The taste was good, i liked the shell shapes A LOT because they create little pockets of cheesiness and everyone knows how much i like pockets (usually those of the pant or dress variety, but i'll take 'em in food any day). The sauce looked a little weak and watery at first, but after mixing it with the shells and returning to a low flame, as instructed on the box, it thickened up like a brick. I wouldn't make this for a gourmet dinner party or anything, however, as a late night snack, a simple mid-day meal or a side dish i would make it again!

A note on nutrition: As this blog is relatively new, we don't want you to think we are slothful vegan piggies, although we can't always be held accountable for our actions when we are! We acknowledge the wonders of and definitely condone eating healthy, fresh foods, but once in a while it's kind of nice to be lazy and snack attack some junky stuff too, and that's what this post is all about. Enjoy sparingly, like one would enjoy a bloomin' onion or a vegan milkshake!

dinner at momma's

last night, lauren and i drove to maryland (we still call it delaware) to have dinner with our mom and her husband kevin and with our grandparents who were visiting from yonkers. hardly 5 minutes through the door, i destroyed a snack of homemade hummus and pletzels (more on these later...like when we get the recipe from grandma). then we sat around and had cozy present exchange time. around 8 we cracked a bottle of champagne, toasted to 2009, and proceeded with a three course feast!

we started with a shiitake and scallion soup adapted from the candle cafe cookbook. i actually prepared this dish the previous evening and it was ridiculously simple. basically you just soak an ounce of dried shiitakes for half an hour (this makes the broth), then add some fresh shiitakes, a couple splashes of soy sauce and a bunch of scallions and simmer briskly for another 30 minutes. i also added some arame seaweed, and finally spiked the broth with rice wine vinegar, cayenne pepper, hot sauce and white pepper. it was mild and very, very mushroom-y.

the next course was one of my favorite dishes of all time. you see, my mom's husband kevin is a great cook, specializing in the szechuan style of chinese cuisine. the man can make a mean cold sesame noodle...creamy, spicy, and just perfect, i am infatuated with them. some time back when he and my mom first started dating, he made a big batch of these and instantly won me over. i hope and pray that one day he will share the secret technique with me so that i can make them literally every day. behold these golden sesame threads (two thirds devoured):

the entree was another kevin specialty: orange sesame glazed tofu and peppers. the smoke alarm went off four times as the wok sizzled loudly over a super hot flame. we peeked over his shoulder at the dancing fire, oil and tofu, as lauren sang a little mantra, a la Unk "now wok it out, wok it out..."

as far as i can tell, this is the way it goes: get the wok oil (peanut oil!) super hot, and rock those tofu triangles in batches until crisp friedness has been achieved. lay them on paper towels to let them rest and cool. the green peppers and scallions get a quick tour de wok, followed by sliced ginger, orange peels, and dried hot peppers (totally edible but not for the faint of heart). then everything gets thrown back in and doused with the OJ sesame glaze. once it's all coated and shiny, serve with a mountain of white rice and attack with chop sticks.

by the end of the meal, i was kind of too full to move but happy as i'll ever be. i'm tempted to vow to never go to a crappy chinese restaurant again, so unholy it is to compare greasy broccoli or salty bean curd to the light, perfectly seasoned dishes we savored at the table that night...