I'm still not packed.

In just a few hours I will be on my way to Chattanooga, TN for a little rocks climbing with my pals. There is ONE HIGHLY NECESSARY component to all climbing trips:

POPTARTS.

In the morning, when I'm sore and hungry and don't know how I can carry on, all I want is a fucking poptart. Yes, those strange, flat pastries with the gooey fruit middle that stick to the most absurdly hard to reach corners of your mouth, and therefore must always be eaten with about three tall glasses of water. And vegans need not feel left out, here. You, like me, can make your poptarts at home. How? See here. I didn't follow the recipe to a T, and nor should you, because we should all try to be god damn individuals every once in a while, right? I filled mine with my homemade and home-canned apple butter, and instead of mixing jam into the icing I mixed in maple syrup.

Okay, okay, now for the original part of the post.

Chocolate Chip Ridden Almond Kakor (ie CCRAK) (Kakor=Cookies)

INGREEDZ:
1/2 cup salted, roasted almonds
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup oil
1/2 cup soymilk
1 tsp baking powder
2 T water
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375.
Grind up the almonds and chocolate chips together in a food processor. Don't have a food processor? What the hell is wrong with you? You're a vegan. Get one. Stop processing before the mixture starts turning nut buttery. You just want small chunks.
In a small bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, combine sugars, oil, soymilk, baking powder, water, and vanilla. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ones. If the mixture seems to dry, add a bit more oil and/or soymilk. Finally, add in your chopped up almonds and chocolate. Mix well. Put generous tablespoon full on a prepared cookie sheet, and press down with a fork to flatten. Bake 10-12 minutes.

The end.

MAJOR OOPS! ANNOUNCEMENT!

A mighty welcome to the two newest members of the Oops! team!

Abby!


May!

Make a new friend.

It's the holidays.

Want to do something grand?

Go adopt a new friend from the local shelter. Some of them have been there for a long, long time. And they're so NICE!

For those of you in Washtenaw county and near...

Humane Society of Huron Valley

Keep in mind that black pets and Pit Bulls don't get homes as quickly. Why? Because of false social stigmas.

BROWINE SCAPES

Go here and follow the instructions exactly. Except add dried cherries and you're ALL SET.

Butternut Squash and Chickpea Curry

Xtina here. Remember when I showed you how I hack apart butternut squashes? I promised you results. And here they are!

I am emerging from a time of transition, but this recipe was there for me when I needed something easy, yet flavorful and nutritious. Easily created out of canned goods from the pantry (or the trunk of your car), it's a good one to have in your bag of culinary tricks.



Butternut Squash and Chickpea Curry


1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
a dash of cayenne pepper
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 cups fresh cauliflower, chopped
1 24oz can tomatoes
1 15oz can coconut milk
1 15oz can chickpeas, rinsed
2 tablespoons curry powder (more or less, to taste)
the juice of half a lemon or lime or orange
cilantro to garnish

Saute the onion in some olive oil over a medium heat source, in a deep skillet or pan. When the onion starts to soften, add the garlic, butternut squash, and chopped cauliflower, and stir. After a few more minutes, add little salt and pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper if you like things spicy. Also add the curry powder, and stir. When the onions become translucent and the garlic is soft, but not yet brown, dump in the can of tomatoes, chickpeas, and coconut milk. Sprinkle in a touch more salt, and bring the whole thing to a simmer.

This is the kind of recipe where you taste often, and add as you see fit. Depending on the acidity of the tomatoes, sometimes I add tiny swirl of agave nectar to the pot. Sometimes I add a ton more curry powder, or a dash of soy sauce. Taste mindfully, and get creative!! The important thing is to trust your taste buds. If you think it needs something, it probably does.

I think I let this simmer for 30 minutes or so. About halfway through, squeeze in some citrus - I used half an orange, but lime is also really good here. The longer it goes, the more flavors have a chance to blend. If you're pressed for time, at least let it hang until the cauliflower and squash get tender. Garnish with cilantro, and you're all set! Serve over rice or couscous, or sop it up with a slice of good bread.

Once again, I'm here to report the results of a Kitchen Lab. There hasn't been any blogging for the past few days because I've been using cookbooks. On Saturday, the ol' mancandy made me dinner, and I used a cookbook to make a vegan pumpkin pie. I wound up making more pie filling than was required, and had probably something like 3/4 cup left. As the pumpkin I used came not from a can but from a lovely Michigan-grown gourd, it felt scandalous to throw out the leftovers. I decided that something simply MUST be done with them.

But what?



The answer took me some time to find, but I ultimately settled on pumpkin-filled chocolate cupcakes. The results were something less than beautiful, but they certainly are delicious and decadent. There are times when Kitchen Lab is a well thought-out process, where it is performed with scrupulous concentration. Then there are times where I just blunder my way through in order to get the damn thing done. That's what happened with these guys. It seems only appropriate that I share this recipe with you in the exact manner in which I created it.

The Ugly:


The Pretty:


Kitchen Lab Pumpkin Pie-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

I preheated my oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, I mixed

1 1/2 cups whole wheat white flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a small bowl, I mixed
2 Tbsp ground flax
3 Tbsp water

In the large bowl of dry ingredients, I made a well in the middle. In the well, I poured

1 cup sunflower oil
3/4 cup soymilk

I stirred this together. The batter was too clumpy, but it looked so chocolaty that I had to stick my finger in and lick some. Oops, I had forgotten to mix in sugar. Fuck! In an attempt to fix my error, I threw in 1 cup vegan cane sugar and 1/2 cup water. The consistency, and flavor, quickly improved. Finally, I mixed in the now globular flax. Realizing halfway through this that I didn't have cupcake liners, I spritzed a cupcake pan with coconut oil spray and put down a layer of batter in each tin. Over the bottom layer, I poured a very goopy dollop of pie filling, which immediately spread, thus indicating my cupcakes would be very much like a sandwich. I layered more batter on top. They were filled right to the brim of the cupcake pan, which I knew meant the tops would spread quite a bit. I didn't care. After taking the time to spread the chocolate on top over the pumpkin pie filling seeping up, I put them in the oven. Assuming that they would be tragic failures, I didn't really keep track of exact time and just checked on them here and there with a fork to see if they had cooked through. It probably took between 25 and 30 minutes, but I really can't be sure.



Anyways, they are DELICIOUS. Even if you don't have any leftover pumpkin pie filling, the chocolate part was stellar and you should give it a whirl. Do everything precisely wrong, the way I did, to guarantee success.

Hold on to your butts.

I'm really very excited to bring up several things to you readers today:
a)SNOW. Finally. God dammit.
b)Canoes
c)Bunnies
d)Sweet potato spread



All of these things happened this week. With a list like that, I think it's obvious that this has been a pleasant week so far. About a)I woke up tickled to see a gentle December 1st flurry. Anyone else? Anyone? Winter. Love it.

b)Canoeing (With inflatable canoe): Cheap, fun way to spend a few hours in nature's glory.




c)Bunnies: Today, doing some shelter cleaning at the Humane Society, I met a giant bunny named Marvin and a medium sized bunny named Ron Weasely. It was...swell.

And finally,

D)Sweet potato spread



Let me just say, holy shit is this delicious. I found the inspiration for this here. I lacked several ingredients that were mentioned, so I tinkered with it a bit and came to this delightfus rendition.

INGREEDZ:
1 1/2 average sized sweet potatoes, baked and mashed
1/2 cup tahini
1 clove of garlic
2-3 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice. That is, straight from an orange. Got it?
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon

The assembly is easy. After I pureed my sweet potatoes in my food processor, I simply threw all of the remaining ingredients in and processed until incorporated. I enjoyed this at work with some homemade naan bread, and intend to enjoy it in some other fashion this evening. On a sandwich, perhaps? Yet to be decided. It will be splendid, of this I have no doubt. No doubt at all.