Lemon Cupcakes

Lemon Cupcakes, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

We went to a party with my new co-workers and spouses on Saturday and I made lemon cupcakes and green tea cupcakes. You have seen enough of the green tea cupcakes I am sure, so today I feature the lemon ones.

The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance. They were very good, but a lot went wrong when I was making them. The recipe called for what seemed like a ton of baking soda. when I combined the wet and dry ingredients, the batter swelled way up and ended up being enough batter for 18 cupcakes instead of 12. The first batch was a little deflated out of the oven and got a little too brown. The second batch, which had to sit while the others baked turned out much better. (The cupcakes at the front of the picture are from the second batch.)

If it were not for the sprinkles that we found in our cabinet, these cupcakes would have looked pretty sad. They made up for their looks by being pretty tasty, so I forgive them.

Of love and sandwiches

Okay, okay, it has been a while since we have updated this blog.  We have both been really busy with work and we have had to put blogging on the back burner.  Post may still be sporatic for a while, but I have to tell you about the best sandwich place in the universe: Ike's Place.

I saw this sandwich place featured on "Eye on the Bay."  The sandwich that the guy on the show was eating looked so amazing that I absolutely had to find this place.  As it turns out, it is practically next door (well, down the hill and next door in the Castro anyway).  They have an amazing array of sandwiches--vegan, vegetarian, meat.  We tried the Elvis Keith (halal chicken breast, teriyaki sauce, wasabi mayo, and swiss) and the Veggie We're Just Friends (vegan turkey, sweet orange glaze, avocado, pepper jack).  They were so good!  All I want to know is why has no one mentioned this place to us?  Shame on you people for hiding Ike's Place!

So if you are in San Francisco, Ike's Place is a must eat place. 

Blueberries!

Blueberries!, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Lately I have been obsessed with blueberries. I have been eating blueberries with everything. The last few batches of blueberries have been super large, plump, and tasty.

In the pictured breakfast I had blueberries with a garlic bagel with herbed cream cheese. They don't sound like they go together, but they do.

My only question is why are blueberries so expensive? My thought is that blueberries are the new hip fruit to eat because they are so full of good-for-you stuff. I miss the days when blueberries were under $2 a basket--now I consider myself lucky if I can find an organic 1/2 pint for under $6.

Winter Squash Pasta

Winter squash pasta, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I discovered this picture languishing in my flickr account. Sadly I cannot remember what recipe this was from, but I do remember it being good. It was a simple pasta dish with steamed winter squash (we used Kabocha squash I think), some of the pasta water to make a sauce and a little bit of cream. Onion, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and perhaps mustard powder were in there as well. If I actually find the recipe it came from, I will revise this post.

Black Eyed Pea Stew

We are always looking for a way to cook black eyed peas for New Year's Day. I never mind, they are one of my favorite things.

This stew is modified very heavily from a starting recipe from the fantastic Lebanese cookbook Food for the Vegetarian: Traditional Lebanese Recipes.

Everybody into vegetarian cooking should snag a copy of this cookbook. The recipes need some "toning down" from time to time to suit our western tastes, but it serves as a fantastic jumping off point for new flavors and ideas, it's one of our favorites. (Then when you get it, you can cook the original version of this, which is quite different, titled: "Black Eyed Peas in Olive Oil.")

Black Eyed Pea Stew.

In a soup pot, heat up 2 T olive oil over medium high heat, and then add:
1 Medium onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flake
2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic
2 teaspoons Fresh Thyme

Cook this until the onion begins to brown around the edges

Stir in,
1/2 teaspoon allspice
a pinch of salt

Then add 1/4 to 1/3 cup Laphroaig Scotch whiskey, (10 year old is fine.) This of course, is NOT part of the traditional Lebanese recipe, (In Muslim lands, liquor is strictly forbidden,) but is an addition of our own. (I've just learned that Lebanon doesn't forbid liquor, and I encourage you to read the comment from a thoughtful Lebanese reader!) In my Georgia days I had a lot of black eyed peas and the natural, slightly smoky flavor of the peas was usually accentuated with a little bacon. In the vegetarian world, bacon is out, and substitutes are sort of the holy grail. Unfortunately, most alternatives are loaded with nasty stuff, or difficult to obtain, or far too impractical being too pricey for the one time per year that you might need them. However, Laphroig has a strong, almost unendurable, smoky flavor that comes from the carbon interior of the charred oak barrels it's aged in. Laphroig also imparts a salty, oceanlike flavor. (Tasting Laphroaig is like: A smooth, sweet, carmel intensity that finishes with someone shoving a burnt sea urchin up your nose.) Anyhow, adding Laphroaig to black eyed peas and other recipes that call for bacon or liquid smoke, works really really well to impart a bacony flavor that will fool most hard core bacon lovers. The strong ocean and char flavors stay after the alcohol burns off. Plus, you look like a REAL MAN with Laphroaig on top of your fridge, it's seen in the whiskey world as sort of the MACHO whiskey. (You don't have to tell anyone it's just for cooking.)

Let the whiskey deglaze the pan and cook for five minutes or so, and then stir in:

2 diced tomatoes
4 T tomato paste (Or 2 T Italian Double Concentrated Tomato Paste)
2 Cans of black eyed peas, drained
4 Cups of stock or water
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes on low, until thickened up.

Finish with more chopped Parsley, the juice of half a lemon, salt to taste, and another generous pinch of allspice.

Serve over Basmati Rice with some cornbread and greens.

Christmas Pizza

Christmas Pizza, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Another pizza in our long quest for the perfect pizza dough. This was really close, but probably not ready for posting the recipe yet.

In an effort to be Christmasy, we put lots of red and green peppers on the pizza and added some chopped olives and chevre cheese.

Israeli Couscous with Spiced Tofu

Israeli Couscous with Spiced Tofu, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I used to hate couscous. I had couscous two different times when I was younger and both times it was terrible (or so I thought). I am going through a faze where I don't want to hate any food, so I am going through the things I really don't like and trying to like them. In the case of couscous, this has been a success. Recently we have had 3 or 4 different dishes that contained various types of couscous that have all been wonderful.

The first couscous dish that started my new found love of couscous was Israeli Couscous and Mushroom Pilaf with Spiced Tofu from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. The pilaf contains olive oil, cremini mushrooms, onion, Israeli couscous (a somewhat large size couscous), garlic, rosemary, dried cherries, and salt and pepper. The spiced tofu contains tofu, paprika, cinnamon, salt and olive oil.

The tofu was incredibly tasty and I think that I would like to have it just by itself for breakfast. The couscous was very tasty too and I really liked the combination of the mushrooms and dried cherries.

Now that couscous is on the menu, I have many many more recipes to choose from that I was avoiding for a long time.