Cakes

Strawberries. I love them. I saw them at the market last weekend and bought them - but they are such a tease. Early berries are never that great, let alone those sour California berries! I can't wait until Oregon's sweet berry season starts.

With that said, I was inspired by the berries and make this cake:

Vanilla cake with strawberry jam filling and strawberry frosting.
I made the strawberry frosting by mixing strawberry jam and powdered sugar with some earth balance.

I had so much fun decorating this cake I decided to make another, one of my favorite combinations - chocolate and mint!
The filling was simple - cashew cream and chocolate chips. I soaked the cashews over night, blended them with some soy milk, then blended in some melted chocolate chips. So simple and tastey!

This mint chocolate cake is by far the best cake I've made i at least a year. The pudding in the middle really made this cake rich. I can't wait to make this for my birthday.

Mr. Bolsh told me he'd eat this whole cake in a week so I didn't need to take it to work like I did with the strawberry one. Well, wednesday came and he hadn't even eaten half the cake. He complained that living with me is like living in Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory! He lives a tough life, it's true. So I took this cake to work and had rave reviews from my co-workers. I even recieved an email about it,
"Just wanted to share a testimonial of your cake. I have had a headache almost all day it seems, and I swear since I ate you cake, it’s gone. Apparently it’s not only delicious, it has healing properties!

Thanks for sharing it with us!"

Aother co-worker, after hearing of its medicinal properties said I should open shop next to St. Cupcake and start "Revival Cakes!"

Garlic Shells

For Easter I had created a wonderful garlic sauce for some scrambled tofu. We didn't use all the sauce so I got creative. There was no real recipe here but it went something like this.

Garlic Shells with Broccoli:
1 cup soaked cashews
4 cloves garlic sauted in olive oil for 1 minute
Enough soy milk to make it smooth in the blender.

Mix the shells, sauce, and broccoli and eat right away or bake for 15-20 minutes.
We had extra faux sausages left over from the Sunday brunch so I threw those in, just to use them up.

I guess this qualifies for a cassarol - a great way to use up ingredients.

Roasted Eggplant Risoto

It's been awhile since a recipe from me - time to share what I've been working on.
This is a nice, lighter tasting rissoto where the flavors really shine through in a subtle way.

Roasted Eggplant Risoto:
1/4 cup maragrin
1/2 onion, diced
3/4 teaspoon rosemary
2 cups risoto rice
7 cups vegetable broth
1 eggplant, roasted
1/2 bulb of garlic, roasted
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 450. Cut the eggplant in half, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. If you have garlic oil, all the better. Do the same with the garlic. Roast in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until tender.
Saute the onion and rosemary with the margarin. Once the onion starts to brown add the rice and stir until coated.
Add 1/2 cup of broth at a time stirring until absorbed.
Remove the eggplant from the oven and scrape out the smooshy eggplant and squeeze out the garlic. Add the eggplant and garlic with the 6th cup of broth. Continue adding broth as normal until complete.
Once complete sprinkle with chopped basil and a finishing salt, a smoked salt would be best.


Garlic Oil:
Olive Oil
Garlic, smashed

Smash the garlic and place in olive oi.
I am really looking forward infusing more oils and using them for popcorn. Now I just need some more bottles for storing these oils!

Podcasts and Dogs

I can't believe it's been so long!
Since my last post, a lot has happened.

We adopted another pup, my grandmother-in-law's long haired weinner dog, Goody:

The black haired dog is Coda, my heart and soul, and Goody is on the left. Goody is very much a special needs dog with his health issues and we are giving him as much love as possible to make his transition easy after having lost his last person and bother-dog. Coda is adjusting alright, though she prefers to be the only child.

For Lent I gave up sugar. It hasn't been as hard as it has been in the past, but testing cooking for upcoming cook books has been hard:
Terry's Lime Shortbread Cookies
Giving up sugar has been difficult because I've been trying to make popcorn that tastes like french toast or cinnamon toast. Creating a recipe without tasting it is no fun!

Other things going on in my life include recording podcasts for the new portion of Jess and my other website, Stumptown Vegans.

Head over here and listen to our first two podcasts!