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Food and Fire King

I made Thai-Spiced Sweet Potato Stew from Nava Atlas’ Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons. The recipe calls for a 1/2 teaspoon of curry paste but says to adjust it to suit your spice level. I ended up using two heaping teaspoons of curry paste to reach a good spice level. The stew was delicious and I used the optional White Wave Thai-Peanut flavored baked tofu. The tofu is expensive though and costs $2.99 at Whole Foods. However, it was worth the added the cost. The stew contains sweet potatoes, green pepper, green beans, and onions in a peanut butter and coconut milk based broth. The cilantro sprinkled over the top at serving time was a nice touch and added extra flavor. I’ll definitely make it again. We each had two bowls of it.

One of Rob’s favorite meals is Potato Cauliflower Curry. It’s a mix of Yukon Gold potatoes, cauliflower, and stewed tomatoes. I always use Muir Glen Stewed Tomatoes because they do not contain high-fructose corn syrup. Rob says “I love the combination of flavors and textures in this dish.” I served it over Basmati rice. It’s a great meal for the cold weather. It’s nice and spicy and warms you up!!!

I also made another favorite that I’ve blogged about several months ago: Vegan Pasta Alfredo. It’s hard to get a good a picture of the Alfredo. It’s much more saucy than it looks. The picture always makes it look a bit on the dry side. The link to my previous post about it has a link to the recipe. I like to make the Alfredo with broccoli and spinach. I used Trader Joes’ Organic Frozen Broccoli and Aunt Mid’s Spinach (the sticker on the bag said it was grown in Colorado). For the pasta, I used Bionaturae Linguine.

Some of the estate sales I’ve been to lately have been really overpriced. However, I did stop at one good sale. I found a Fire King mug with a cool pattern for $1. I’m actually not sure what the name of the pattern is. This was the only Fire King mug at the sale and it was mixed in with regular coffee mugs. They didn’t have a price on it so when I got up to the cashier, I asked her. She said, “Oh, it’s a coffee mug, they’re all a dollar each.” I was thrilled.

Peanuttiest Blondies and Recipe

First, I want to thank Sara again for asking me to participate in the Cookbook Spotlight for Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I really like the cookbook because it has a nice variety of recipes (scones, muffins, cakes, pies, cookies, and more). There are so many recipes I put on my “to-make” list. Most of the recipes can be easily veganized as well. I’m really curious to see what the other participants are going to make.

Originally, I was thinking about making the Blueberry Crumb Cake. I had Rob look up the recipe while I was writing out the grocery shopping list. However, Rob saw “Peanuttiest Blondies” listed in the index and told me I was keeping him in the dark about the cookbook containing a blondie recipe. Never mind the fact the cookbook has been out on the bookshelf and easily accessible since I got it! LOL I haven’t made blondies in a long time so I decide to change my plans and make Peanuttiest Blondies instead.

The recipe is pretty easy to put together and uses common ingredients. To veganize it, I used Earth Balance instead of butter and ENER-G Egg Replacer instead of eggs. I also used sea salt over regular salt but that’s just a personal preference. The recipe is true to its name – they really are the Peanuttiest Blondies. The recipe calls for both crunchy peanut butter and salted peanuts. If you have a Trader Joes nearby, you can pick up a bag of their salted peanuts for around $1.99. That’s what I used in this recipe and I also enjoyed eating the peanuts straight out of the bag. I chopped the peanuts in my old-fashioned chopper – the one with a glass jar base and a tall handle you have to press down on to chop.

The blondies turned out great. Rob felt they had excellent mix of peanut and chocolate taste. He actually likes this blondie recipe better than the previous recipe I was using. My mom is a big fan of blondies so I put some aside and froze them for her. The hardest part is waiting for them to cool completely. I’m guilty of trying to invert them a tad too early. I did have one corner of the blondies break off. That piece was quickly snatched up and eaten by….you guessed it…my husband Rob. So my best advice is to literally follow the directions exactly and let blondies cool completely before inverting.

Peanuttiest Blondie:

Peanuttiest Blondie served with a cup of tea (the mug is a Fire King “Kimberly” Mug in blue).

Peanuttiest Blondies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup peanut butter – crunchy or creamy (not natural)
5 tablespoons Earth Balance, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
Egg replaced equivalent to 2 eggs (I used ENER-G)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped salted peanuts
1 cup chocolate chips

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line a 9-inch square pan with foil, “butter” the foil, and put the pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and sea salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the peanut butter and Earth Balance together on medium speed until smooth. Add both the sugars and beat for 1 to 2 minutes, until well incorporated into the Earth Balance/Peanut Butter mixture. Add the egg replacer, one “egg” at a time, beating for 1 minute after each “egg” goes in. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the dough; the dough will be thick. Add the peanuts and chocolate chips and give the mixer a few turns to stir them into the dough. If the chunky ingredients aren’t mixed in after a few seconds, just finish the job with a sturdy spatula – don’t overmix the dough. Scrape the dough into the prepared pan.

Bake the blondies for 40 to 50 minutes, or until they turn a deep honey brown and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean. (Emmy’s note: my blondies were done after 40 minutes.) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature.

When it is completely cool, carefully lift the blondies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and turn them out onto a
rack. Peel away the foil and invert onto a cutting board. Use a long knife to cut into 16 bars, each roughly 2-1/4 inches on a side. (Emmy’s note: I cut the blondies larger.)

Storing: Wrapped well, the blondies will keep for about 3 days at room temperature or for up to 2 months in the freezer.

Winter Squash and Estate Sale Finds

The farm stand I go to was having a winter squash stock-up sale: 10 squash for $8 (mix and match). I bought 2 acorn, 2 white acorn, 2 spaghetti, 2 sweet dumpling, 1 butternut, and 1 buttercup.

I also went to an estate sale today. Apparently, there was a lot of merchandise left over from a sale over the weekend and everything was 75% off today. I bought two cookbooks for only 50¢. Actually, I found a dime on the floor making my final total 40¢. Yipppeeee! The first cookbook pictured is called “Natural Foods Cookbook” from 1982. There are several recipes in this cookbook that use tofu. The second cookbook pictured is the “Culinary Arts Institute Crockery Cooking” cookbook. It’s from 1976 and has quite a few vegetables recipes in it.

I haven’t been making much new food lately. Last week was really busy and I know this week is going to be the same. I did get my hands on some tamarind and used that in VwaV’s Pad Thai recipe instead of lime juice. It was delicious!!!! I’m going to be trying another recipe from “Baking: From My Home to Yours” tomorrow. Look for the results on Wednesday.

Estate Sale Finds