Could It Be … SEITAN?

Here are two things I love:

and

When their powers combine, you get:

So it was my friend Josh’s birthday, it was raining, and I felt like whipping up some purple icing. I used the basic chocolate cupcake and the basic buttercream recipes from VCTOTW. All because I only wanted 2 see everyone laughing in the purple rain.

How precious is Jamie?

When it comes to cinnamon rolls, I do not play. I do. not. plaaay. These are serious, put on yer happy fat pants, dance around like you just had some brandy soaked cinnamon rolls. Cause you did. You had like three of them. And you ate them really fast. Now what are you gonna do? You’re gonna BLOG it.

I made these to to send off my boyfriend and his bandmates on their maiden voyage to Japan. They had an early morning flight out of LAX and they’re talllll boys riding coach all the way to Tokyo. No better way to get through an 11 hour flight than booze and pastries, right? P.S.Check out their music!

Recipe

Dough

1 t active dry yeast

1/4 C unbleached sugar
1/2 C soymilk, slightly warmed
1 egg worth of En-R-G
1/4 C Earth Balance margarine, melted
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 C whole-wheat flour

1 t salt

Filling
1/2 C brown sugar, packed
2 T ground cinnamon
1/4 C Earth Balance margarine, softened

1/3 C raisins soaked for 1 hour in brandy

Icing

I used the recipe for Buttercream Frosting in VCTOTW and added:

2 T maple syrup

1 T brandy (yeeeah more of that)

Instructions

• Mix yeast, sugar, and warm soymilk together in a large mixing bowl and let it hang out until it looks foamy (about 5 mins)
• Add en-r-g, melted margarine, flour, and salt. Mix well and knead for 5-10 minutes. Cover the bowl with a damp towel for 30 minutes so the dough will double in size.
• In a medium size bowl combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, drained raisins, and margarine.
• Roll dough out into a rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Spread filling mixture evenly over dough. Roll dough and cut into sections about 2 inches wide.
• Put rolls in a 9×9 inch baking pan, cover with damp towel, and set aside for another 30 minutes let the dough double in size. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Finally! Pop those cinnamon dough-babies into the preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly brown.

• After taking the pan out of the oven, drown those kids in your icing. Seriously, break it down. We’re certainly not counting calories with this recipe so don’t skimp on the good stuff!

Yeeeeah boy. The heat of the alcohol adds something special to an otherwise pedestrian breakfast item. And hey, no one’s going to get on you for breaking out the bottle before noon once their mouths are stuffed with gooey sticky sin-namon greatness!

The cold rainy weather here in L.A. is forcing everyone into warm cocoons of blankets and mountains of DVD’s. I think everyone was getting tired of holing up every night, so we decided it was time to break out of the rut and host a dinner party/board game night!

Luckily I had a ton of groceries sitting around begging to be used, so I improvised with what I had.

First was the mustard encrusted tofu over stir-fried kale and onions:

I sliced some silken extra-firm tofu, pressed it with paper towels to dry, slathered it in a mixture of spicy brown mustard, sesame seeds, and cornstarch and pan fried it on the stove. For the kale, I chopped up two garlic cloves and an onion and sauteed them until slightly brown. Then I added the kale and about 1/3 cup of water and sauteed until the onions were carmelized and the kale got soft. This recipe got rave reviews (hooray!) from my dining mates. The tofu was crispy and spicy on the outside and soft inside - perfect with the slight crunch of the kale and onions.

Next! Butternut squash fries! Love of my life!

I could seriously eat an entire squash in one sitting prepared this way. Ok, maybe I already have … In any case, these disappeared completely in about five minutes! My boyfriend especially loved them (you will notice that I couldn’t even get his hand out of the way to take a picture). I sprinkled them with about a tablespoon of olive oil and a dash of salt and roasted them in the oven at 450 degrees until crispy - about 30 minutes - flipping them over halfway through. Sooooo much healthier than french-fries and I swear they taste better too.

Dessert was Blueberry ‘Splosion Muffins following this recipe .

I made the strawberry version a year ago and about every month get a request to make them again! They’re so delicious. Sweet fruit bubbling out of the inside and the cinnamon struesel topping? Are you kidding me? Amazing. I made 12 and only had one left this morning for breakfast!

My favorite part:

Watching everyone dig in! This meal fueled us for a grueling game of Trivial Pursuit and a youtube viewing of the Democratic debates. Mmmmm brain food.

It is necessary that I grace the first entry of this blog with a serious public announcement:

With that out of the way, I will now pummel you with personal information! I have an unhealthy addiction to healthy food in the best way possible. I spend a lot of time stuffing my loved ones (myself included) with delicious vegan food. While I’m down with veganism in a serious way, I have to admit that I occasionally imbibe in some not-so-vegan items. Eep! I am not a saint! Nor am I the church lady. Nor am I Dana Carvey. This is fun, so let’s continue with a list of things I am not:

+a fan of joint pain

+someone who likes romance novels

+the man from the oxy-clean infomercial

I am, however: a decent dancer, a twenty-two year old female, a california resident, a dog owner, a bike rider, a new blogger, and a terrible tennis partner.

My most secret wish is to someday run a vegan bakery, so this is my E-ode to baking, cooking, and eating. Ta-dah!