Italian Teese Appetizers

In looking through Nana's recipes I was inspired this morning and thought of a great use for Teese. For once I found a use for vegan cheese that may be difficult to recreate with real cheese.
Italian Teese Appetizers:
1/2" round of the Teese tube
6-8 basil leaves
1/4 tomato sliced very thinly

Place the Teese round on parchment paper and melt in the microwave, or broiler, until completely melted and it is spread out. Make sure the Teese is spread evenly. Let it rest for 1-2, just enough for the Teese to firm up.
Cut square edges to the sheet of Teese.
Layer thinly slices tomatoes and basil leaves.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and carefully roll up, and poke with a toothpick about every inch.
Garnish with basil or oregano.
Chill before serving to ensure stability.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Menu: (all dishes named by Mr. Bolsh)
Potato Rolls
Candied Carrots
Mashed Potatoes
Tofurky with Cider Glaze
Gobble Gravy
Super Green Beans

The Potato Rolls came from Veganomicon. They were fantastic, but not much like the potato rolls I grew up with, but more like dinner rolls.

Candied Carrots is a dish both Mr. Bolsh and I grew up with but it seems most people eat this dish with yams or sweet potatoes. Simply over boil some carrots, drain, then add some earth balance and brown sugar. Cook until the sugar is melted.

Mashed Potatoes are Mr. Bolsh's specialty. I did have some input - I had him add some parsley based off Julie's advice.

Gobble Gravy was something I wasn't planning on making, but it turned out wonderful, and I'm not even a gravy fan! I caramelized 1 1/2 onion. It took awhile for it to cook down. I used sparkling cider to deglaze the pan. I then dissolved 1 cube of vegetable broth in 1 cup of thick cashew milk/cream. Once this was all added together I was planning on adding a thickener, but instead I let it cook for about an hour (while the tofurky was cooking) and it boiled down very nicely.

Super Green Beans were about as simple as the carrots. I roasted the green beans with olive oil. When they were done from the oven I added some flax seed, which lightly coated the green beans and gave a nice nutty texture to it.

The Tofurky, both of them, were all cooked by Mr. Bolsh. A few year ago we started using sparkling pear cider to glaze and marinade the fake meat. This year was no different. Mr. Bolsh boiled the cider into a reduction sauce (though I don't think he knew that's what he was doing) and he kept turning the tofurky to coat it. He then baked it like normal.

On to the photos!

The Spread:
Potato Rolls:
Candied Carrots:
Super Green Beans:
My Wonderful Plate of food:
Nap Time!

Super Easy Meals

Coconut Eggplant Curry:
1 eggplant
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 can coconut milk
curry paste
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion and garlic, add the eggplant, coconut milk and curry paste. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Add basil and cook 3-5 minutes.
Pour over rice and serve.

This was such an easy meal with so much flavor. I can't wait to make it again.


It doesn't get much quicker than this:

Neatball Sandwich:
4 prepackaged frozen meatballs
Pasta sauce
soy parm
Hot dog bun or other bread-like holder, like a tortilla in my case.

Cook the meatballs in the pasta sauce. Once it's cooked through, add to the bun. Sprinkle with soy parm and call it a meal.

Lunch Swap

My friend had a birthday party last Sunday with an interesting theme - a lunch swap. Half the people made lunch for two and the others just showed up. All the lunches were wrapped and placed on the table. When eating time came those who didn't come with lunch drew numbers. The first person got to pick a lunch, unwrap it and wait. The second person could steal the first person's unwrapped lunch or pick a wrapped lunch on the table and unwrap it. It goes on until everyone has picked a lunch. The chef of the lunches are then exposed and you have a little picnic with them.


The inspiration for my lunch came from my awesome, new dinosaur cookie cutters. I made Flax crackers from How it All Vegan, and a black bean "tar pit" dip. I didn't know how to continue making a meal with a dinosaur theme, so it stopped there.

The Flax crackers from How it All Vegan were great. I added some crushed, sliced almonds, and extra spices and they are great. I often skipped over this cookbook when I learned to cook, but it does have some good recipes in it. These will be made again with various spices.
For an appetizer I also included garlic stuff green olives and large capers.

Next dish was a simple potato salad. Apparently mustard and relish is not common to some peoples' experience in potato salad. Potatoes, vegenaise, mustard, chopped onions, fresh dill, fresh tarragon, vinegar, celery, salt and a tad of relish.

Tofurky Kielbasas satueed with onions and zucchini and put on skewers for easy eating. These were really easy and went over well because they can look impressive.

Fruit put on skewers. Another simple way to make fruit more fun and easy to transport by placing it in a pink glass.

Last was dessert, of course. Chocolate pear cookies with a strawberry filling.


The party was really fun but it took a lot more energy to make a full lunch/dinner for someone than making one dish I'd normally make for a potluck party. I later found out that others didn't put as much energy into their lunches.
The history from this idea came from a 50's dating and fund raising idea. Women would make lunches, men would then place auctions on the lunches. When they won the auction, they would then have lunch with the woman who made it. Very cute.

Normal Dinners

Like most bloggers I take photos of most the food I eat, even if it's not that interesting or have real recipes. It's always interesting to see what others are eating so here you go.

Chickpea soup with spinach and noodles with a side of dill carrots.
I've been working on my carrots. My partner misses these mushy carrots his grandmother use to make. So I've been trying to over cook my carrots to a mushy perfection and coat them with a pinch of brown sugar, dill and earth balance.

Vegan Chicken Sticks with agave-mustard dip and garlic greens.
While at Food Fight I felt like I needed to support their new freezer so I picked up these weird fake chicken legs. They are on little sticks which are actually sugar cane sticks - It's interesting. The dip was