Goodbye Unemployment...

There has been cooking...

baked lotus root chips with cayenne pepper and salt

and weaving...

log cabin pattern with variegated warp

and noodling about on the guitar...

some kind of chord...

but on Monday I'm going to work for the first time in 10 weeks. I'm going to miss my days of R&R, and I highly recommend it even if you have to go kicking and screaming -- I needed a break MUCH more than I realized. But I'm relieved that I found a good job and that I will be a desk-bound business-casual heel-wearing member of society again.

Caramelized Onion Butternut Squash Roast with Chestnuts

Rob got me the Veganomicon for Christmas, and we didn't get around to trying any recipes from it until today.

Oh my goodness ... such an amazingly tasty winter dinner. It's not well-suited to a week-night dinner because it takes quite a while to bake, but it was Friday and I like a big cooking project on Friday night to get the taste of work out of my brain. Then we have all weekend to eat it.

Now I understand why they sell pre-chopped butternut squash in the produce section. It's super hard to chop, even for Rob! But I have an aversion to buying vegetables that have been wrapped in plastic -- both because I think nature's wrapper is much better at preserving freshness and because I hate being ripped off. So we peeled and chopped, both a whole squash and a whole pound of onions. It was totally worth the work and the wait.

I won't post the recipe here, but if anyone reads this and tries this recipe here are our mods. We used chick peas instead of northern beans because that's what we had on hand (bad vegetarian, must soak beans!). We also doubled the bread crumbs for the topping, just because. I wanted to make some applesauce to go with it but didn't have time so I just threw some apple slices in the oven for about 15 minutes so they were slightly soft, and they were the perfect counterpoint.

Warning: If you make this, your neighbors might knock on your door and demand to know what smells so amazing.

Lentil Burgers rock!

Our New Year's Day dinner was lentil burgers. I use a recipe from The Veggie Table with the addition of a teaspoon each of coriander, cumin, and chili powder. The most fabulous frozen veggie burger (a rare find indeed) can't even begin to compare to a freshly made veggie burger with lentils, carrots, onions, and spices. And they make for quick dinners during the week since we can keep the burger mixture in a bowl in the fridge.

No mystery ingredients, no E. coli, no problems!

Samosa Pie

Rob and I love samosas -- those crispy tetrahedrons of pastry filled with potatoes, onions, peas, and spices. We've become quite handy at forming the individual samosas, but I was still looking for a less time-consuming way to get my fix. I remember making hamburger pie as a kid and figured that a samosa pie had to be pretty darn tasty.

I typically use the samosa recipe in Manju Singh's The Spice Box: A Vegetarian Indian Cookbook and wanted to use that for the filling, but I wasn't sure about the baking time for pie and those other important details. I asked the interwebs if such a creation had been attempted before, and I found this blog entry at the cooks and the curious. I used their crust recipe and cooking times, a double dose of samosa filling for the pie, and it turned out fabulously! I think it might have been the best pie crust I ever made. We are stuffed and happy.

Our first Thanksgiving

Rob is out of leave days this year to go visit family, so we had our first Thanksgiving dinner for two. It was also our first vegan Thanksgiving. I wouldn't call myself vegan, but I tend to cook that way at home. We had lentil loaf, mashed potatoes, candied yams (complete with vegetarian marshmallows), stuffing, cranberry relish, and dinner rolls -- all home-made! And a bottle of lovely Michigan wine, of course. Rob had pumpkin pie for dessert and I had a home-made cinnamon roll.

Even though we were only cooking for two, it still took about 3 hours of work in the kitchen to get everything on the table! And we still have abundant leftovers to last for a couple of days.

The big tree is all decorated but I don't have a good picture of it yet! Just this one of Miss Zellie resting underneath it. It's her favorite place -- and we can't begrudge a kitty for loving velvety hiding places.

Mmmm, pizza.

Rob and I made a pizza from scratch, including sauce and crust. I can't take any credit for the pineapple, tomatoes, and onions on top of it though. Or the cheese -- sorry Ms. Cow.

I hope the shape does not offend any pizza purists out there, but I didn't have any round pans. Rob made the sauce from fresh tomatoes the night before, and I made the crust from scratch. The crust is a yeast-leavened crust and not the biscuit-type crust that most crust mixes produce. Yeast crusts are so worth it, and they don't have to take that long to rise!

Mmmm, Cookies!

This afternoon I made Chocolate Mint Snowtop Cookies, which I used to love to make when I was a teenager but I haven't made in years! They were just as good as I remembered.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate pieces (no, you can't substitute milk chocolate chips -- they won't turn out right.)

6 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon mint extract

~ 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, for rolling dough balls

1. Combine flour, baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt, set aside.
2. In a saucepan heat 1 cup of chocolate pieces over low heat until melted, stirring constantly.
3. Beat butter with a mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Beat in granulated sugar until combined. Add in melted chocolate, eggs, vanilla, and mint flavoring. Mix until combined.
4. Stir in flour mixture and remaining chocolate pieces.
5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap. Freeze 30 minutes or until firm enough to shape.
6. Preheat oven to 350°F
7. Shape dough into 1" balls; roll balls in powdered sugar. Place balls about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until tops are crackled.
8. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet.
9. Transfer to wire racks; cool.

Bring these to your next communal feast! Spread the chocolate mint goodness around.