Nothing epic going on here

Hey, I kept waiting to cook something that would blow everyone's mind! Then I realized that day will never come.  So here's some of the usual, non-mind-blowing fare.

First in the line-up, some homemade flour tortillas.  See, we don't discriminate here at Shorty Can Burn.  Corn, flour, we will happily eat them all.

The final product: ye olde bean burrito. I was kind of excited about the sauce, which was my (reasonably successful) attempt at replicating one served by a local restaurant.  I liked their sauce so much that I actually tried to get them to sell me a quart of it, which they refused to do. This ought to teach them not to try to deprive me of delicious sauces--I will simply make a sauce clone in my evil underground sauce laboratory! Ha ha ha ha! HA HA HA HA!!!!!

This is an adaptation of this recipe over at http://www.101cookbooks.com/.  The tasty part about this (which may not be obvious from this EXTREME close-up) is that you saute cooked pasta in some olive oil, then dump it into a soup.  Neat technique!  I added some broccoli for some green.

And this is my version of this pesto recipe from the PPK, although what I did bears little resemblance to the PPK version. I didn't have cauliflower, so I roasted broccoli instead, and I didn't have time to make tofu balls, so I used gardein fake chicken instead. I also added in tofu feta and sundried tomatoes.  Nothing special, but pretty tasty. I used half rice pasta, half regular, and the taste did not make me want to quit eating pasta forever, so that was a plus (I am struggling with finding a healthier substitute that we like for white pasta in Italian-style dishes).

More questionable photos of tasty meals

So today's installment of good food, horribly immortalized in digital format, comes in part from Zoa who has lately been talking up Jamie Oliver's cookbooks. I never thought I would bother with his oeuvre, but Zoa made his recipes sound awesome so I got some of his cookbooks from the library. In this one, there was a recipe for Jools' beef stew. I guess Jools is his special lady friend? I don't know. Anyhow, the recipe sounded good except for the beef (ugh). It entailed many root vegetables, winter squash, lemon zest, sage, and rosemary.  Subbed in seitan for the beef.  It was pretty much delicious.

Now back to the Vegan Slow Cooker.  This week I made the chickn noodle recipe (it was a little on the bland side, but I think if I had a cold, I would love this. Half of a toasted cheeze sandwich on the side), and.... 

the mushroom "soysage" ragu recipe (definitely not from the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls--I just included that for Shen).

So far I would rate this cookbook pretty highly. I'm not blown away, but the recipes deliver what they promise: straightforward, easy, wholesome, accessible, and healthy vegan food.

Miscellaneous grub part II: Electric boogaloo

I am a bit reluctant to post this photo because it looks like total ass compared to Rose's beautiful chowder, which was the basis for its inspiration. Having said that, Rose is 25% of this blog's readership, and she already knows this is tasty, so how much harm can a fugly photo of this recipe do?  I made a few changes out of love of booze/laziness/lack of ingredients.  First, I fried up some tempeh bacon then deglazed the pot in a buttload of white wine. I could only get trumpet and crimini mushrooms, so I augmented those with some dried shiitakes.  I think they imparted a nice smokiness.  Also, I didn't smoke the shrooms so I added some liquid smoke.  Finally, I added peas 'cause I like peas.  And I don't chop very finely OR peel anything. 

This is just here because it was delicious. That is all.

This. What can I say about this horror?

Do I need to tell you that it is not real chicken? It is in fact fake vegan chicken I bought from our local Asian superstore.  Could someone please tell the genius who extruded the soy protein into the chicken-shaped mold that no one EVER ate chicken because of the goose-pimply plucked appearance? They needn't have bothered! I only bought this because this company made a shiitake fake chicken product that I loved. Either the store isn't selling it anymore or the company isn't making it. Either way, after MUCH deliberation, I bought this.

I ended up shredding it (hope the artiste who lovingly sculpted the chicken shape mold it came in can forgive me) and serving it in Bryanna Clark Grogan's fried rice recipe from Authentic Chinese Cooking. Damn I love that cookbook.