"Food and drink are the glue that keep body and soul [mind] together," says an old Viennese adage. Americans concentrate far too little on their food.

Asparagus Linguini

Rest Linguini in cool water for 30 minutes

Boil Linguini for 10 minutes (with a pinch of salt)

Chop garlic, mushrooms, olives, and red pepper.

Chops asparagus

Saute' veggies with olive oil in a saucepan (add salt and pepper)

I bought I new camera. Wunderbar!

Petite Heat.

Through the past several years, as the majority of my diet has increasingly included healthier food, my palate has altered to desire foods that I had at one point been horrified to see on my plate. Such changes as these have inclined me to adore hot, spicy ingredients.

An amuse-bouche is a small, single bite sized meal. In French it is called "hors d'oeuvre" and in Italian "antipasto." Whatever the linguistic variant, the purpose is to provide either a companion to a fine drink, prompt the appetite of those dining, or highlight an aspect of the main course and possibly a theme of the dinner.

Curried Garbanzo beans with Brussels Sprouts:

Ingredients

Garbanzo beans

Onions

Tomatoe

Cilantro

Curry powder

Fresh and rinsed brussels sprout leaves

Next to working out like a boss (crossfit/cycling), learning German in three weeks, and making money to buy more dishware, I intend to cook/bake/photograph/blog my entire Winter Break. Expect great things.

Cheers,

Evrett.

Magic!

Jesus may have turned water into wine, but I made this in a dirty college dorm kitchen:

Vegan Peach Crepes

Topped with Cashew Cream and a cinnamon drizzle

Crepes

1/2 cup flower

1 tblsp of fine cane sugar

1/4 tsp salt or a few drops of vanilla depending on what dinner these are made for.

Replacement for one egg (the type of egg replacer used will change the consistency of the batter)

1 tblsp of vegetable oil

1 cup of non dairy milk

The heat of the pan you're using along with the thickness (in our case the thinness) of the batter is crucial. If the pan is not hot enough, the batter can stick even with some sort of "sticking" prevention (oil, butter, spray). The batter must also be very thin in order to quickly spread across the pan.

The cashew cream is the same recipe from my post on English scones.

Diaya Cheese Creations.

So, I got a hold of some Daiya Cheese thanks to friends and family. You can definitely eat it, but it's not the best cold. When you melt it though, it tastes amazing. Which means it's perfect for

Pizza

and quesadillas

The product is great. It gives you a lot of meal options that were previously unaccessible to vegans, many of which are traditional staples to Americans.

Now, who's ready for Thanksgiving?!

The Full Package.

Who needs a holiday in England when you have Top Gear, breakfast tea, and this...

... traditional English scone with homemade strawberry jam, and cashew cream.

Scone

2 cups of flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup vegan butter (cut in)

1 cup of non-dairy milk, curdled.

Add flour into desired consistency

Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes (depending on size). When done, the tops should be firm and slightly crisp.

Jam

Mash/blend 2 cups strawberries to desired consistency for jam

Add 1/2 cup of sugar

1 Tbls cornstarch

1 Tbls water (mixed with cornstarch)

Add cornstarch/water mixture to strawberries/sugar.

Bring to boil, then let simmer for 10 minutes. Stirring often.

Cream

4 oz cahews

1/2 cup of water

1/2 tsp maple syrup

a few drops of vanilla extract

Put cashews and a 1/4 cup water in food processor. Add syrup, vanilla, and more water until desires taste/consistency.

It's suuuuuper good.

Bo-nan-a! Bread!

Something leftover from Fall break. My recollection of this creation was most definitely prompted by the warm (HOT!) weather we're experiencing in Williamsburg, temperatures quite comparable to those of Fall break... except it's almost November this time.

Bread

2 cups flour

3 bananas

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup applesauce

1 egg replacement

cinnamon to taste (1 1/2 tsps +)

Topping

Mix vegan butter, flour, and sugar to desired consistency/quantity.

Raisins and walnuts, are of course, great to mix in. I want to try cashews and dates sometime, though. Unfortunately, I was out of all of the above.

Cheers,

Me.

I'm Pregnant with Excitement for Fall

So it's finally cooled off here in Williamsburg--the day after Fall Break. It hasn't stopped me from baking like it's the day before Thanksgiving, though.

Mini [chilled] pumpkin pie.

It's essentially a pumpkin pie. However, instead of baking the pie filling you just throw it in the fridge for several hours and then in the freezer for a few more. This means you do not need egg replacer or non-dairy milk. You are only required to make it taste good, not all the complications that hitchhike along with the process of baking. Pumpkin puree, pumpkin seasoning (or just cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc.), a little raw cane sugar, maple syrup and you're set. Chocolate and caramel drizzle with some crushed candied walnuts makes it an official danksgiving.

I am going here for an entire day for Thanksgiving break:

http://www.stickyfingersbakery.com/index.php

Cheers

LOTS of Goodies.

Ice Cream!

Vegan vanilla ice cream with a cinnamon drizzle and banana chips in a home made cone.

Ice Cream

3/4 Cup Vanilla soy milk

1/4 light vegetable oil (Blend thoroughly)

3 Tablespoons sugar (Blend once again)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Freeze overnight

Cinnamon Glaze

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 1/2 Tablespoons confectioners sugar (vary amount for desired quantity)

1 Tablespoon Soy Milk (vary for quantity and thickness)

"Cone" Bowl

The bowl is just a mini pie crust pressed into a jumbo muffin pan.

Pancakes

A regular pancake recipe. I substituted apple sauce for an egg and vanilla soy milk for cows milk.

More Biscotti!

This is my third attempt. The first was a lemon almond which I made at The Grind later (it sold out in a day), after that I made pumpkin with a chocolate glaze. This is plain recipe with a powdered sugar glaze and orange zest.

Orange Biscotti

Fluff 1/2 a cup of vegan butter

Mix in 1/2 a heaping cup of sugar

Add in a replacer for two eggs (Ener-G works best here)

Add 1 teaspoon of orange extract

Seperately,

Mix 2 cups of white flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 salt

Mix dry into wet in stages. If too dry at a tablespoon or two of Soy milk.

Bake on the top rack at 350F until the top is hard-ish and slightly brown (25 min+)

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes.

Cut into slices and cook each side 10 min.

Cool, then add drizzle and zest.

I want Fall weather for Fall break, meow!

More nom noms!

Homemade Vegan: [really] Spicy tomato soup, veggie sandwich, and carrot raisin muffin.



The bread was a simple bread from made from scratch



The muffins!

Catch Up.

I made peanut butter strawberry scones (a play on PB&J) at The Grind yesterday. Today I made Cinnamon Ginger muffins. Something like this...

Except I made them with a brown sugar crumble topping. So good.

After I got off work, Greg (my duathlon world champion suitemate) and I went out grocery shopping for dinner. It was quite a feast. Here's the end result:

A black bean burger with lime cilantro hummus and guacamole. You might also notices the side of sweet potato chips, too. All homemade, all fervently rustic, and all delectable. The preparation was truly enjoyable. Greg and I were cooking in the moment. No recipes or measuring utensils. At one point I asked him how much olive oil he had put on the sweet potatoes. He replied, "some"--a sufficient answer which my palate later confirmed as the correct one, indeed.

We're going to try to cook every Sunday. Stay tuned.

I also am going to make more ice cream sometime (hopefully) this week. I have an idea for a homemade cone/bowl.

A bit of a Break

Well, after a few weeks of bloglessness, I have some old muffins to post.

Double chocolate!

Peach!

Healthy Flax Seed.

School's been tough. In the first three days of classes I read 180 pages, by the fourth I read 220, and by the 8th day I had made it above 400 pages. I love everyone in my resident life staff, we had a lot of fun in training. The biggest news relevant to the type of blog that this is is that I'm officially a baker! The coffee shop I am always at (literally--about 6 to 8 hours a day) hired me as the weekend baker. I'm learning a lot from the owner, and getting tons of experience that would normally cost me money and time--time I'm now getting paid for. I have some exciting new baked goods to post up and hopefully some new, original photography of them. I plan on having some great baking stories from The Daily Grind each weekend, too.

~Cheers

Junior Year!

Well, it's my first day back at school. After rearranging my new room for a frustrating three hours, I decided to make some more muffins.

Banana soy mix (soy nuts, pumpkin seeds, chopped almonds, and craisins)

Tomorrow is my first day of RA training, it's gonna be tiresome. Which means I should probably only ride about 20 miles tomorrow before we meet for breakfast at 7:45, right? Right.

Ice Cream minus the Cow.

Who says you need a cow to make a great *traditionally* dairy based desert?

Vegan: Vanilla ice cream, snickerdoodle biscotti, and caramel sauce with crushed walnuts.

I love coffee, like most people. I have a silly opinion, which may quite possibly be erroneous, that coffee, much like smiling, is a human universal. If all other language failed us--drifting into the void of forgotten nothingness, the statistical norm for much of the existence in this indifferent universe--mankind, womankind, and any other human "kind" could survive as social creatures with only coffee and smiles.

Now, with all of the words out of the way, here's a couple sentences much more delicious than any college essay or graduate thesis can provide: a coffee muffin. Please respond promptly with a smile.

Sincerely,

simply, only, Me.

A Bit Behind...

Well, I've been a tad lazy in my uploading. So, we have four this time!!!!

Lime with Lemon Zest

Rasberry Lemon Glaze

Coconut Caramel

Cherry Chocolate

I'll post my newest recipe tomorrow, It was tasty!

What We Can Do.

This book, "The Life You Can Save," by Peter Singer is fantastic! If you read one book this year, read this one twice.

Thelifeyoucansave.com is a great resource for giving.

More motivation?

Another Trio!

Three more muffins!

Cantaloupe



Oatmeal Cranberry Raisin



Tomato Soup Spice



I have a couple of really original recipes that I'm going to start actualizing, hopefully, soon. Stay tuned!

Three more

Three more very tasty muffins!

Banana Peanut.



Pumpkin (a post-core workout treat with a friend).



Finally, a corn muffin with habanero pepper.



These are just a warm-up for what's to come: Cantaloupe muffins! However, my cantaloupe needs to ripen first...

A Little Peek at Fall

This carrot spice muffin with raisins and crushed walnuts will be perfect in cool crisp weather I'm looking forward to this Autumn.



Especially with some hot breakfast tea!

These are Brilliant!

Probably two of my most favorite muffins so far!

Chai Tea



These are great. Packed with the stuff that makes you go hard, fast, and far on workouts. I'll probably change the recipe slightly and make them into a bar form for longer rides.



Sweet French Breakfast



I'm excited to play around with these muffins, too. The bread is very tasty, but quite neutral, which leaves a lot of room for variety in the recipe.

New Adventures in the Oven!

I remade the cinnamon raisin bagels with some of the leftover Dough I froze before I left for NY. They came out a little flat this time but still tasted alright.



I also made a couple of maple syrup walnut bagels, too. I ate them up before I had time to get my camera out, though. ;)

My second first for the day was a batch of mixed berry lemon scones.

Tour de France!

Well, the first two stages of the Tour de France were complete crap-shows. The amount of crashes were reminiscent to a cat5 crit. However, Lance is still in 5th!

In celebration of long climbs at tough grades, lactic acid, and bikes, bikes, and more bikes: Banana Strawberry muffins with a brown sugar oatmeal crumble topping!



I did quite a bit of baking the same day I made these muffins; so, I'll have more pictures of my makings tomorrow!

The ethics of what we eat.

Here is a video of Peter Singer presenting an overview of his book "The Ethics of What We Eat."

ADK Supplies!

Well, it's been about two weeks since my camping trip and I completely forgot about posting pictures!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal



Simple Blueberry



The whole load



I also made a couple of cinnamon raisin bagels. I finished them just minutes before I had to leave by skipping several steps. Amazingly they still came out great! Unfortunately, didn't get to take any pictures.

Soft Pumpkin muffins

My sister, Breana, took a shot at muffin baking. A thoroughly successful endeavour!



I'll be road-tripping to Skaneateles New York tomorrow with a friend to meet up with a few buddies for a couple of days. The highlight of our trip will be camping in the Adirondack mountains from Thursday through Saturday. Something we did about this time last year. Our secluded location and the fact that my friends are all meat-eaters will necessitate packing food with me for the time we're camping. So, I'll probably be making two types of muffins tomorrow along with something I have yet to bake--bagels! I'm considering a chipotle flavor...

Photographic documentation will, of course, be provided!

More Baked Goods

Two more muffins: Cinnamon apple and whole weat maple syrup. Yum!