Romesco!

Have you made romesco yet this year? This complex and flavorful Catalonian sauce is perfect for grilled spring and summer vegetables. It can be time consuming to make, but it keeps well and the flavors improve with time in the fridge. Make a big batch and eat it with grilled veggies, rice, sandwiches, and crusty bread all week long.

This recipe is cobbled together from several others and has served me well. Feel free to tweak the ingredients, but please don't skip the sweet smoked paprika. After one whiff you will want to dust your mustache with it every morning.

Romesco sauce

Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

1 yellow onion
2 red bell peppers (if you are not a huge pepper fan, sub a third tomato for one of the peppers)
2 ripe tomatoes
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
2 T Sherry vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1/3 - 1/2 C almond meal (DIY by grinding 3/4 C almonds in a coffee grinder or food processor)
1 slice bread, white or wheat, stale or toasted, torn into small pieces
1 t sweet smoked paprika (also known as pimenton de la vera; available in fine food stores or spice shops)
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 salt, plus more to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Rub onion, peppers, and tomatoes lightly with olive oil and roast in a pan with sides for 45 minutes, turning occasionally. Remove from oven and immediately cover with foil or place in a plastic bag for 15 minutes (this traps the heat and humidity and helps the skin separate from the vegetables). Peel the onion, peel and seed the tomatoes and bell peppers and place all the vegetables in a food processor.

Toast the almond meal by moving it quickly over medium heat in a dry pan on the stove, or spreading it in a thin layer in a baking dish and sticking it in the oven for about 8 minutes while the veggies are cooling. Add 1/3 C of the toasted almond meal to the food processor.

Add the remaining ingredients (olive oil through salt) to the food processor and blend until smooth. The consistency should be similar to ricotta cheese: soft, but thick enough to spread. If your veggies are larger and result in a thinner sauce, add the remaining almond flour. You can further thicken it by adding more toasted bread.

Allow the sauce to cool and serve at room temperature. Eat it by the spoonful, spread it on toasted baguette slices, serve it over rice with grilled tofu, spread it on a sandwich, or plop a huge dollop of it in the center of your plate and surround it with grilled or oven roasted vegetables.

I made it this week and brought it to a friend's house for a grilled vegetable extravaganza. Nomnomnom:


Grilled spring onions with romesco.


Feast! Sandwich with grilled eggplant, vegan mozz, fresh basil, and romesco. Grilled corn, brussels sprouts, onion, asparagus and tofu with romesco.

Bonus wiener-in-a-babushka:

Birthday Weekend Extravaganzaaaa!

We went to Manitou Springs for my birthday last weekend and had a really great time. If you're in Colorado and looking for a laid back and inexpensive mini-vacation, follow these steps:

1. Make a reservation at Gray's Avenue Hotel (actually a bed and breakfast). There are several rooms under or around $100 a night in the off season. We stayed in the Osage, which was super cozy and had me squeeing with delight about the canopy bed.


Photo from bbonline.com.

Danny gave them a heads up that we're vegan, and when we arrived they had a plate of almond butter, fruit, and crackers waiting. Gwen made us vegan cookies that night, and tofu scramble, vegan pancakes, and vegan blueberry muffins on Saturday and Sunday morning.

Bourge it up with wine in the hot tub before bed, and don't forget to pet the resident furries on your way out to explore.




2. Go hiking in Garden of the Gods. Admission is free, the hiking is easy, and the views are beautiful.





Heh.

3. Eat at Adam's Mountain Cafe. I was a little peeved when they didn't have any vegan appetizers on the menu, but then I realized that it's not actually a vegetarian restaurant, and our main courses were so good that I forgot about it.


Pear salad with apple vinaigrette.

Senegalese vegetables with tempeh. I would eat this every day if I could.

Pan seared tofu with udon noodles.

PS. Before you leave, be sure to check your luggage for stowaways.

The Thanksgiving Menu

I have agonized over this menu. This is the first time I am hosting Thanksgiving on my own (usually I cook everything but the turkey at my parents' house), and the first time I am replacing the turkey for anyone but myself.

I am usually not the least bit apologetic about denying meat to people I cook for, but some reason omitting The Thanksgiving Turkey is intimidating to me. I keep googling pictures of live turkeys to remind myself how ridiculous it is worry about it.


Bubbles, a turkeylet rescued by Farm Sanctuary. Go to their website to adopt a turkey.

Anyway, here's the menu:

Appetizers:
Aged Cashew Cheese with Crackers (Dr. Cow)
Maple Cinnamon Caramel Corn (Hooray Vegan Zine)

Main:
Seitan Chops Smothered in Apples and Ginger (Post Punk Kitchen Blog)

Sides:
Seriously Decadent Mashed Potatoes (Hooray Vegan Zine)
Rosemary Mushroom Gravy (Hooray Vegan Zine)
Green Bean Casserole (FatFree Vegan Kitchen)
Cranberry Walnut and Sage Stuffing (Hooray Vegan Zine)
Cranberry Orange Relish (FatFree Vegan Kitchen)
Garlic Roasted Acorn Squash (See instructions below)
Roasted Fennel and Hazelnut Salad with Shallot Dressing (Veganomicon)
Potato Rolls (From a bakery cuz my oven will be stuffed already)

Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream (Bryanna's recipe)
Chocolate Chip Cookies (Post Punk Kitchen Blog)

Beverages:
Hot Spiced Cider (There's a guy that makes it local)
Pumpkin Beer

Garlic Roasted Acorn Squash, courtesy of freeganvegan on the ppk:
Cut acorn squash in half, scoop out seeds, place 2-3 garlic cloves in each half, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake. The squash and garlic get roasty toasty together, then you mash the roasted garlic in with the squash.

Pictures in a week! Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!

This just in: Everything is squishy and wonderful.

I have been reading some news and working on some things that are making me a bit depressed about the state of the world. It's good to stay informed, and even better to act on the issues you feel strongly about, but sometimes we need a break. So today I am giving you news that is all delicious and happy and warm and fuzzy. Enjoy!

1. Isa made chocolate chip cookies, and you can too.


2. Adam from the ppk is getting a new tattoo. Well, maybe not, but this picture from DIY SLO is awesome enough to be a tattoo.


3. California's Prop 2 passed!


4. bjorkedoff invented Peanut Butter Pudge Bars.


5. Natalie Dee is great.


6. G Dub will be out of office in no time.


7. Baby animals are still really, really cute.





Today's squishy news brought to you by Hooray Vegan.

Vegan Mofo: Lovely Sundays

If you work a Monday through Friday sort of job, Sundays are the best and worst day of the week. There is nothing quite like that wonderful lazy feeling you get first thing in the morning, and then that bummed out Monday-is-coming feeling you get as the day is coming to an end (Danny calls this The Sunday Sad).

I try to stretch out the good feeling with brunch, farmers markets, and bike rides, and stifle the bad feeling by distracting myself with an afternoon movie. Yesterday was an example of a perfect Sunday, and it was full of excellent vegan food.

We were up and at 'em at the crack of 11, and off to City Park with Cooper and Jipetto. It was sunny and bright, but the air was crisp. This is my favorite sort of weather.


Frolicking wiener dogs are the best kind of wiener dogs.

Around 2 we headed to Watercourse for brunch. It was fantastic, as usual, and we lingered a little too long over our post-brunch cookies and coffee.


The Dona Lee (Crispy seitan, avocado, and vegan ranch). This isn't typical brunch food, and we didn't have it at typical brunch time, but I think brunch is more the style of eating (relaxed, served whenever, maybe a little decadent).



Watercourse fries are just the right sort of crispy. I forgot about food porn until it was a little too late.



Cookies and coffee. The both of us let out a simultaneous audible sigh after the first bite.

After scarf and hat shopping (we are ill equipped for Denver winters), and a movie downtown, we went to City 'O City (Watercourse's sister restaurant) for a late dinner of tea and pizza.



Pesto, vegan mozzarella (made in house), seitan sausage, and mushrooms. So good.

And then a short ride home and early to bed. Sigh.

June Brunch in Photos

First, the food. Brunch shells, Mushroom Spinach Strata from Veganomicon, fresh tomatoes and basil, mashed potatoes, peanut butter cinnamon rolls from bjorkedoff, spinach salad (recipe below), fresh fruit, juice, and coffee.










Bicycles, food, and flying dogs are fun and all, but the epic didn't happen until someone noticed that the coconut trees on the golf course were ready for harvest.

There were skeptics.


But Luke and Mike, clearly farmers at heart, rose to the occasion.



Brunch heroes.


Obtaining fresh coconuts is one thing. Fashioning them into beverage vessels is quite another. But we persisted,







And prevailed.




Thanks to Steph for her kitchen help, Pam for leading a bike ride and taking pictures in spite of an injury, Lily for taking pictures, and to everyone else for attending. We raised a healthy sum for Milton Animal League! Next brunch is in July. Stay tuned for details.

<3 Abbie

Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges, Strawberries, and Toasted Almonds

My Aunt Beth brought this or something very much like it to a 4th of July party one year. Anyway, it's easy, pretty, and delicious.

Salad:
10 oz fresh spinach (about one large bunch)
1 C quartered strawberries
1 small can mandarin oranges, drained and rinsed
1/2 C blanched, slivered almonds, toasted and cooled (spread onto dry cookie sheet and toast at 350 for 5-10 minutes)

Dressing:
1/4 C rice vinegar
1/4 C canola oil (any oil with a very mild flavor will do)
1-3 T sugar, to taste
Fresh pepper to taste

Gently toss salad ingredients together. Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss with salad immediately before serving.