Monday, February 20, 2012

If you're playing Friends trivia, it's Joey's favorite food...

Sandwiches!

Everything tastes better toasted.

Pepperoni Pizza Toasty

2 slices of bread
3-4 slices of Vegan cheese
2 slices Vegan turkey
8 slices Vegan pepperoni 
Vegenaise
Tomato sauce

I know you don't really need a recipe for a sandwich, right?  I used the Cuisinart Griddler panini press to make it toasty.  I have the original version of this gadget, and it's quite multi functional for a small apartment.  

Spread the vegenaise on the bread, spread tomato sauce over that.  Add a layer of cheese, turkey, pepperoni and cheese (so you have cheese net to the bread on both pieces.)  Then place on preheated griddle and toast to toasty perfection.  Put at an angle, then shift 90 degrees to get cool hash marks. Sometimes I spray with non-stick canola spray and sometimes I don't, it really comes out the same.

Yum...

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Doomsday Prepper or Miss Minimalist? and some Rye Bread...

So I'm cleaning out a closet trying to balance being a Doomsday Prepper  and a Minimalist.  I've clearly been watching too much Nat Geo and reading too many feng shui e-books...   

Doomsday Prepper Minimalist food supply:  Dried beans; check.  Rice; check.  Water; enough for a few days and stuff that will hopefully purify the Hudson River; check.  Lots of things to flavor the beans & rice; check.  Yeah, I guess I can live off that for awhile if the *bleep* hits the fan.  The ninja wants weapons.  I'll take care of the food.  I don't plan on eating squirrel.

Next step is to redo the Vegan Unplugged pantry supply box.  My brilliant idea to keep it fresh is to donate the whole thing for the holiday food drive (complete with a can opener and a copy of Vegan Unplugged) and then replenish annually.  Good thing we didn't get a blizzard this year, since I've been without the supply box for 2 months.  I had lots of fun with this during hurricane Irene last August even though we didn't even lose power.    

Now onto the rye bread.  A bread machine embodies the opposite of a both a doomsday prepper and minimalist, but I do love this darn thing.  I've had it for at least 12 years, and lost the manual ages ago, but I just found it online (yay!) and was inspired to make the rye bread with rye flour from King Arthur Flour that has been languishing in the pantry.      

Nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning...toasts nicely.   

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Ghost Peppers & Gardein Soft Tacos

My cousin sent me some ghost peppers fresh from his plants in LA.  This fiery monster's official name is Bhut Jolokia and it is touted to be the world's hottest pepper.


I sauteed up a small one with the Gardein, and although it has a nice smooth pungent spicy smoky flavor, I ate a whole one in the burrito without even breaking a sweat.  Good blend of heat with flavor, but I don't think it's the hottest pepper I've had.  I did take out the seeds and spines, which probably helped.


Gardein cutlets, avocado, tomato, ghost pepper, Daiya cheddar and, Vegan Gourmet sour cream.

Think it's a Superbowl snack?  Heck no.  I'm watching Gosford Park, then Downton Abbey on PBS.