BitterSweet

Finally, a calm handful of days in which I could actually cook a real meal or two! As my schedule may soon become much more relaxed, hopefully you’ll be seeing more posts with actual food coming soon, as opposed to just millions of recipes for sweets and things. Not that I think there would anything wrong with that, either.

I’ve made plenty of tofu scrambles and things before, but I have to admit – They never really tasted great. I was fine making and eating them by myself, but I would have been embarrassed to serve them to anyone else. Beginning to loose hope in what seemed to be a lost cause to begin with, I turned to my cookbooks, the web, anything that might direct me onto the right path. Immediately it was clear that I had relied to heavily on spices in the past, and handled my tofu poorly, causing a grainy and unpalatable texture. Combining my newfound knowledge, I set out on my task: Create a faux-eggs dish that could please my omnivorous family, and me. My end result was a very tasty tofu spinach frittata.

The only thing that I might do differently next time is cook it longer. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I could only allow 20 minutes before the others started threating canibalisim. It was a little watery when cut, but the flavor when combined with the veggies more than made up for the texture.

With this, I decided to experment with a new product that I had heard good things about, LightLife’s “Smart Bacon.” Unfortunately, I really wasn’t sure how to tell if it was done, so I panicked when the suggested time had elapsed and the strips still seemed very wiggly. To make up for that, I cooked them in the toaster oven to varrying degrees of burnt. Hmm… Had they been cooked properly, I would say they were surprisingly good. I generally stay away from fake meats, but my dad absolutely loves bacon, so I wanted to see if I could maybe wean him off of it a little… We’ll see. I don’t remember what bacon should taste like, so I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but certainly not a bad side.

Tofu Spinach Frittata

1 16-Ounce Package Silken Tofu
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Spicy Mustard
1 Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
1/4 Teaspoon Tumeric
1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
1 1/2 Cups Cooked or Frozen Spinach
1/2 Medium Onion
3 Cloves Garlic, Minced

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, grease an 8 inch cake pan and set aside.

Get out your food processor and toss in your tofu, along with all the spices. Puree so well that it makes you nervous. (I honestly thought I had overdone it and made frittata mousse, but that’s actually kind of what you’re aiming for.)

In a small skillet, saute your onions until translucent and deliciously fragrant. Throw in the garlic, and cook for another minute or two. Remove from heat and combine with your [thawed, if originally frozen] spinach. Add to tofu mixture, and make sure all the veggie bits are evenly distributed in the tofu. Pour into the cake pan and slide into the oven for 25 – 30 minutes. Perhaps to would help to set it under the broiler for a bit to brown the top further.

Cut into fourths, it makes 4 relatively small portions. I might suggest making a sizable side to go with it, or at least cooking up more “Smart Bacon” than I did!

Printable Recipe

Wait a minute, what’s this? You say it’s your birthday again? But… You’re still my little puppy, chewing through my most expensive skeins of yarn, playfully destroying the contents of my bathroom closet like always. Nothing has changed since the day we brought you back from Virginia… Except, maybe, now your ears are slightly more proportionate to the rest of your head.

Oh Isis, how silly you are! As you can see, it’s simply not possible for this day to mark the passage of 9 years since you were brought into this world.

Nonetheless, it is still a very special day, and after all we’ve been through together, you deserve something to celebrate. A new toy? No, you just finished shredding a plastic hair-dye applicator from my toiletries. A play date? No, you don’t seem to enjoy playing with the other dogs on our street, and I don’t believe the fox in our backyard is avaliable right now. A treat? Yes, of course, there’s never a wrong time for a treat!

This year, I went all out. A mouth-watering cake, wonderfully suited for your tastes and nutritional needs. But who cares what’s in it, you know perfectly well that your food is meant to be consumed the minute it enters your bowl, so I’ll let you at it!

As you can see, Isis went into such a frenzy when she got her birthday cake, I couldn’t even get a clear picture of her eating it! I’m not even sure she took the time to chew!

Now, while some people may think that this is a bit excessive, I believe that it is only fair. Honestly, how many cakes and treats do I make for everyone else? And for her? Close to none. All that dry kibble… I feel horrible that I don’t have enough time to cook her meals from real food, because trust me, I’d love to if I had the proper means. I only wish I could have done more. For all of the times she’s sat at my bedside while I was sick, listened when no one else would, and destroyed my personal belongings, no one on this earth could compare. She deserves only best.

So why not treat you beloved companion animal on their birthdays, too? It hardly take any effort, and the recipe even makes two little cakes, so you can enjoy it along with them should you wish!

 

Happy Birthday, Isis! You’ll always be my little puppy.

To me, the perfect texture for a cookie, almost any cookie, is a soft and chewy body, with close to zero crumb, while not going so far as to become a dense blob akin to fudge. However, this recipe is kinda pushing it, even for me.

From Vegan with a Vengeance, I tried making the Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies the other day. While this book has never steered me wrong before, and I’m sure they’ll still taste great… There was something very off about the consistency of the dough. I didn’t even play around with the recipe as I usually do! The only change was substituting the almond extract for more vanilla, seeing as my almond cake had just cleaned me out. Firstly, they didn’t roll so well… I used more of a scooping method with my hand, and it was much more like batter than dough. When they came out of the oven for the first time, I really couldn’t leave an indentation with my finger (As you can see from the pictures), and only flattened them, if anything.

Finally, after their total 11 minutes of cooking time was complete and they had cooked on the baking sheets for a good 10 minutes… I couldn’t lift them up! Each time I tried, they threatened to cave in on themselves and dissolve into cookie mush! Seeing as it was becoming late, I couldn’t very well turn the oven back on… So I just let them sit overnight to firm up. It sort of worked… But still, not what I was expecting.

Who knows what happened. It was probably just some stupid mistake on my part… This certainly won’t be the last time I attempt these cookies, and I’m determined to find out.