Pumpkin Muffins

These are based on the Pumpkin Muffins in Vegan with a Vengeance, but I use my own baking mix. Also, I use less sugar and oil. The original spices, however, are perfect. Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup mashed pumpkin

2/3 cup soy milk

1/3 cup oil, including 2 tablespoons toasted walnut oil if you have it

2 tablespoons molasses (not blackstrap; it's too strong for this)

scant 1 cup sugar

1 3/4 cup whole-grain baking mix

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon cloves

Preheat oven to 400F. Beat together the pumpkin, soy milk, oil, molasses and sugar until well combined. Add the baking mix and spices and stir until just combined. (Don't over mix once the flour has been added.)

Oil 12 muffin cups. Spoon in batter nearly to the top. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the top is springy and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

House Favorite: Spanish Frittata with Saffron and Thyme

The internet has been the best thing ever to happen to home cooking. From the first days on dial-up, thousands, maybe millions of us have been out there exchanging recipes, hints and ideas. I love that I can create something new, share the food with my family and then share the recipe with the world for someone else to love. Even better is looking for a recipe and having so many choices from so many cultures. I've even become a decent technical writer from writing recipes for the web and email, a skill that was useful at my last job.

There is a downside to this, however. Most of us are amateurs, and we make mistakes. Sometimes our enthusiasm gets the best of us, we make a recipe that we think is The Best Thing Ever, and then we never make it again. Other times, we accidentally leave a step or ingredient out. Blogging complicates things further. We're making things from other blogs, and sometimes cooking becomes like playing a game of Telephone. One misunderstanding begets another misunderstanding, and pretty soon, we have a beautiful photograph, a great story, and a dish that's just meh. When this happens to me, I blog about it anyway.

That's why I think it's only fair to tag the recipes on this blog that I've made over and over. They're the ones I wouldn't hesitate to serve to guests or take to a potluck. These are the recipes that I use as references when creating something new. They're House Favorites.

I've gone back and tagged all of the recipes on this blog that qualify as House Favorites. If you make one of these, you can be sure that I've made it at least 3 times and don't think it can be seriously improved upon (without turning it into something else entirely!).

This frittata* recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance was an instant House Favorite. It's easy, filling, and goes perfectly with a crisp, green salad. I have cut it in half and added some spices to warm up the flavor. I also haven't made the sauce in the original recipe after the first time. It was tasty, just not necessary.

*In Vegan With a Vengeance, this is called Revolutionary Spanish Omelet with Saffron and Roasted Red Pepper-Almond Sauce. Technically, frittatas are Italian while in Spain, this would be a tortilla. However, omelet and tortilla already mean different things at our house, and I didn't feel like explaining the difference every time I made it. So, frittata it is!

Frittata with Saffron and Thyme

2 Yukon gold potates

1 small onion

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

a small pinch of saffron

about 2 tablespoons boiling water

12 or 14-ounce package of medium-firm tofu

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

pinch cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F. Slice potates 1/4 inch thick. Peel onion, cut in half, and slice as thinly as possible. Separate rings. Add 2 tablespoons oil to a large oven-proof skillet and toss potatoes and onions in the oil to coat. You will want to make sure there is a generous coating of oil remaining on the bottom of the skillet to keep the tofu mixture from sticking later; add more oil as necessary. Roast for 30-40 minutes, turning once or twice, until potatoes are lightly browned and cooked through.

In a small bowl, pour boiling water over saffron and allow to steep while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. In a food processor, combine tofu, garlic, nutritional yeast flakes, salt, thyme, both peppers and steeped saffron threads with the water. Puree until smooth.

Spoon tofu mixture onto the potatoes and onions. Using a spatula, flip the potatoes over several times until the tofu mixture and potatoes are evenly combined.

Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes, until top is golden and tofu is set. (If doubling this, add 10-20 minutes to the cooking time.)

Serves 3.

Butternut Squash Gratin

Let me just slide this in the oven and take a sip of my wine.

Vegetables can be tricky sometimes. The first time I handled a butternut squash, I must have tried five or six utensils trying to peel the thing. Leeks, too, can be devious. They like to take dirt into themselves as they grow, and it can take some detective work and finesse to find it all.

For the squash, I've learned to cut it in half across the middle with a serrated knife, and then cut each piece vertically, so that I can scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Then I use a vegetable peeler on the outside, and slice it up with either the serrated knife or a chef's knife.

The edible parts of leeks are the white and pale green parts. I usually slice off the rest and toss it into the compost bin as soon as I bring them home. When I get ready to use them, I slice off the root ends and then cut them vertically. Then I can rinse them under running water while fanning the layers out like a deck of cards to wash away all the dirt.

This is going to make an encore on my table for Thanksgiving, probably with Indian spices.

Butternut Squash Gratin

a 2-lb butternut squash, peeled and thinly sliced, about 6 cups
1 tablespoon oil
2 or 3 leeks, sliced, about 2 cups
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh sage or 1 teaspoons dried
1-1/2 to 2 cups beschemel sauce
1-1/2 cups bread crumbs

Steam butternut squash for 10 minutes. Saute leeks and garlic in oil until tender, about 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Oil a 2-quart casserole and spread about 1/4 cup beschemel sauce on the bottom. Add 1/2 of the squash, 1/2 of the leeks and 1/2 of the beschemel sauce. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Top with bread crumbs.

Bake, covered, for about 25 minutes or until heated through and edges are bubbly.

Serves 6 or more.

The Best Beschemel Sauce

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This is one of those recipes that has evolved over the years. I used to make a dairy-laden version to have with seafood crepes. By tweaking and replacing one ingredient at a time, I've come up with a dairy-free version that I like even better than the original. I've used this with vegetable crepes, in moussaka, as a basis for a creamy enchilada sauce, and for a gratin. Dishes made with this will freeze well, too. You can even freeze it alone. If frozen alone, it will separate; just whir it back together in the blender.

If you notice, I've tagged this recipe with "basics." This is a tag I'm using to denote recipes that can be part of other dishes. That way, you and I can find them later when we're feeling creative.

The Best Beschemel Sauce

Choose herbs and spices that complement your dish. Try 1/4 teaspoon tarragon with crepes, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg with a spinach dish or moussaka, or minced cilantro or chipotles in adobo sauce for enchiladas, for example.

1/4 cup margarine, such as Earth Balance
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup white wine (I like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio)
3 ounces Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (about 1/3 of an 8 ounce carton), cut into pieces
Herbs and spices of your choice
salt to taste

In a medium saucepan, melt margarine over low heat. Stir in flour and cook over low heat for a minute or two. Remove from heat, add soy milk and wine, and whisk into the flour-butter mixture. (Doing this off the heat will prevent lumps in your sauce.)

Add pan back to heat, and cook over medium, stirring frequently, until thickens slightly. Add cream cheese, stir to melt, then add herbs or spices of your choice and salt to taste.

Makes about 2 cups.

The Missing Blog Posts and Baked Apples

My poor Gateway laptop. I've beat it nearly to pieces. You might say I've loved it too much. However, unlike the Velveteen Rabbit, computers don't become "real" when loved too much, they just become junk. Gateway has a cracked screen, a cracked hinge, a power connector that isn't making a good connection internally, and a trackpad that just randomly stops working periodically. In addition, I haven't been able to print over the network for weeks, and everything I've done to print just opens another box of problems. Two weekends ago, I decided that I was going to fix the printing problem, or kill the laptop trying.

I killed the laptop.

It works, but I had to restore it to factory defaults. Luckily I had backed everything up. I backed everything up, right? Right? Well, no. Sitting on the desktop was a file called "Blog Post." It was full of post ideas, half-written posts, recipes that needed a mere tweak, and nearly complete posts that were awaiting a photo. For some reason, I didn't copy it over, and it is gone. Goodbye, file. I didn't know how much I would miss you.

While I'm recreating what I lost, I wanted to make something new that I know will work. Now is not the time to experiment. Now is the time to indulge and recover.

I turned to The Papaya Chronicles and Melissa's Maple-Rum Glazed Slow-Baked Apples. I've never made baked apples before, but these are very easy, and very delicious. I followed the recipe as close as I am constitutionally able to follow any recipe, and only made three changes. I used pecans instead of macadamias, allspice instead of nutmeg, and baked them in the oven instead of the crockpot (375 F for 45 minutes). However, these smell so good when cooking, I'm going to do them in the crockpot next time. Yum!

Also, check out the rest of Melissa's blog. She's participating in VeganMoFo and has been posting a new breakfast recipe every day. I'm going to be getting cooking ideas here for a long time to come.

Two-herb Pesto

A few weeks ago, I wanted to try a new recipe that uses fresh basil and mint. I thought it would be fun to make a basil and mint pesto first, and then have some of the pesto in the freezer to play with later. There is a Vietnamese market around the corner from me that has huge bunches of herbs for 40 or 50 cents so I headed over there. These bunches are at least twice the size of the ones you find at the supermarket, and they have often have multiple varieties of each one, which is fun. I picked up one bunch of each and headed home. However, when I started to make my pesto, I discovered that what I thought was mint was a mystery herb, something I had never seen before. After much angst and googling, I found out that I had brought home lemon balm. I went with it, made basil-lemon balm pesto, added it to my dish, and was really happy with it. Serendipity!

Fast forward to a couple of days ago: The supermarket had basil and mint on sale, displayed side-by-side. I took it as encouragement to try my original idea. The resulting basil and mint pesto was also delicious. I now have a choice of pesto in my freezer.

Now I think that using two herbs is the way to go in pesto; it creates a more subtle, complex flavor than using basil alone. Some other herbs that would be delicious are cilantro, tarragon, arugula or parsley. I can even envision using some of the stronger ones like thyme or oregano, but in that case I'd probably replace half of that second herb with something mild like baby spinach or parsley. Some day I might even do a crazy combination like cilantro + arugula. I bet it would be delicious.

This pesto sauce is based on the one at Simply Recipes. This blog's version makes a small quantity, so that you can have multiple flavors on hand. Some people like to freeze their pesto in ice cube trays and transfer it into containers later. However, I just save mine in small jars (like caper or artichoke heart jars). It's not hard to slice some frozen pesto from the top of the jar with a knife. (What else is a vegetarian going to use her steak knives for?)

Two-herb pesto

3 tablespoons pine nuts (or walnuts)
1/2 cup fresh basil
1/2 cup fresh mint, lemon balm or other mild herb
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste

Toast pine nuts (or walnuts) on a tray in a toaster oven, using the same setting you would for medium toast. Remove from toaster oven immediately. You can also toast them in a dry skillet. Remove from heat when they just start to become golden and fragrant.

Pulse nuts briefly in food processor. Add herbs and garlic and process until well combined. Pour olive oil slowly into the running food processor. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and process again until well blended. Add salt to taste.

Makes about 1/2 cup.