Sushi? For me?

I have learned something about myself. I am a condiment whore. I think sometimes I eat particular things, simply for the associated condiments. I have 7 types of vinegar, 5 mustards, 9 billion jars of pickled everything, 2 overflowing cabinets of spices and no less then 1 metric ton of every type of vegetable, seed or nut oil known to man. I need you to understand this about me so the rest of this post will make sense. I am *mostly* vegan, I don’t eat fish, and I LOVE SUSHI. Until recently I believed that the fish, nori, rice was what I loved, when actually it is just the wasabi. Trouble with such a dish specific ingredient is that I couldn’t think of much else to do with it apart from making aolis for tofu. I had been sedating my craving with overpriced cucumber and avocado rolls from sushi restaurants but the idea of paying 7 dollars for 3 cents worth of ingredients usually turned my stomach so much that I hardly enjoyed my meal.

Finaly, last week, I broke down and made all of ppk’s delicious vegan sushi.

 

I am not going to re-write all of Isa’s recipies, you can find them here.

We made all of them, but far and away the very best one is the spicy tempeh roll. I was reaaaaaaly hesitant to try this because my fist experience with tempeh was such an epic failure. I should not have been worried. These ladies know what they are doing, and EVERYTHING I have ever made of theirs has been just wonderful.

Katie and her friend came over last Monday, and we had a freaking amazing time making these.

He is very helpful ❤

We made waaaaaaaaaaay too much though. In case you were wondering 5 cups of rice is too much for 4 people. It is almost too much for 6 people lol. Oh, and we had pie. Cause, ya know, every one needs pie.

 

 

I have had sushi three times now. Three sushi days IN ONE WEEK! How amazing is that? Saturday, I just made a ton in the afternoon and we were hobos and had that and soup for the rest of the day.

 

If I had known how easy, tasty and completely satisfying sushi could be with out the fish, I would have skipped the whole pescitarian thing most likely. It might actually be a bad thing how easy this is to make, I defiantly need to try with brown rice because I feel a teensy bit guilty about eating so much white rice.

The rest of this week should be interesting. This is my first Thanksgiving being vegetarian, *mostly vegan* and I am a little nervous. I know no one will make me feel bad, I am actually more concerned with making other people uncomfortable. I know it is all in my head, I am just a lunatic. I am planning on making a dish to bring to each event this week, and having that as my main thing, and letting everyone else eat it as a side dish. O and pies. Super stoked about the pies this year. With as much stuff as I am going to be making, as many pies as I plan on eating, and how long it takes me to make myself sit down and write, I’ll probably be done with my next post some time next year :-). Happy Thanksgiving every one! ❤

Pizza, pasta and playing

I have not been feeling terribly inspired lately with all of the insurance, fixing the roof, and trip planning stuff that has been going on lately. However, I did feel like trying something I have been thinking about for a while now, an attempt at a deep dish pizza. I usually just roll my dough out to cover poor cookie sheet so it is more like a thin crust. Now, I absolutely adore thin crust pizza, but I was really craving that crispy, almost fried texture of a good pan pizza.

I preheated the oven to 425 while I made my dough. I splurged and used half bread flour and half whole wheat. Once I had the dough mixing, I grabbed my cast iron skillet, put a couple tablespoons of olive oil in it and rubbed a garlic clove into the pan. Then, put it in the oven to heat up. I kneaded some rosemary into the dough, stretched it out and put it in the super hot skillet ( I was scared of burning my hand of, but I managed this time without incident lol). I topped it with my pizza sauce, spinach, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers and basil. It baked around 20 minutes and it was perfectly done!

The pan is so well seasoned that my pizza just fell out! I was all ready to pry it out, so this was a pleasant surprise.

I seriously wonder why I used to spend so much on delivery or frozen pizzas. With Fleischmanns Pizza Crust yeast it is beyond easy and takes 20 minutes to make and 20 minutes (or less depending on your crust) to cook. Plus, you control everything about it, so you know that it is (relatively) good for you hehe 😀

Yesterday we were very busy playing most of the day. Bubbles are awesome, just in case you were wondering 🙂 So a quick dinner was in order. Behold the awesomeness of freezer food lol.  I thawed out my last two seitan sausages and made a quick penne dish.

Not that fancy, but very very good. I finally used the rest  of my basil from the summer rolls the other day lol. I was hesitant to let Liam eat these sausages when I first made them because they are a bit spicy, but he destroys them. I guess he is like his mom and dad with an affinity for spicy stuff 😀

After dinner I turned on the sprinkler in the backyard for Rupert. Since I had mowed that afternoon during Liam’s nap, it was super grassy but that is part of the fun!

Errands and a Star Trek TNG marathon today on Syfy sooo yeah lol I will be “busy” Have a great day!

Easter

I just wanted to show every one why I love food and cooking as much as I do. My mom was the kind of mom that had cookies for us when we got home from school. Not out of a box, like she made us cookies almost every day. Dinner has always been a sit down, don’t talk with your mouth full, no we don’t eat in the living room, milk or water type thing, and for that I am exceedingly great full 🙂 I really do think there is something to sharing a meal with your family around a table that becomes lost when all are shoveling food mindlessly in to their faces while watching Tru tv.  Even though Liam is only (only?) 8 months old, I still want to practice us eating together as a family. Any way, back to my mom. Friday my littlest brother came home for a few days from his army base, and my mom made a fantastic Easter brunch 🙂

She has always made bread and I am lucky enough that she took the time to teach me a lot about baking. These are wheat rolls (my favourite!)

Matt’s favourite …

I forgot to take a picture of this with the supper yummy poppy seed dressing and red onions. I looooove this salad 🙂 I actually forgot to take lots of pictures because once it gets close to time to eat I have other priorities, like stuffing my face.

I was trying to steal the camera from my dad, and Gregory was swinging Liam 🙂

More ninja skilz. My dad is weird about not letting any one take pictures of him….

Dad, always behind the camera!

Grandpa Mike 🙂 Liam likes beards hehe 🙂

Hope every one had a fantastic weekend! ❤