Entries from February 2010 ↓

She just doesn’t lose the quirkiness, apparently.

You can find more of my 52-week Photo Project here.

I have these cookbooks.

In actuality, I have a lot of books with recipes in them, and a lot of bookmarks saved on my computer. I rarely, if ever use them. And if I do, it’s never to the T – I always have to change something because I think I’m that awesome of a chef, apparently because of food allergies, and now, our new-found vegan practices.

The thing of it is: I’ve known a lot of people who didn’t consider themselves very good cooks, because they couldn’t follow a recipe and make it look like the photo in the book, or because they couldn’t say, “Self, let’s make a cake!” and just pull out ingredients, willy-nilly.

Did I just age myself, using the phrase ‘willy-nilly’?

I can’t do either of those very well, either. I can follow a recipe and it’ll probably look different than in the book, and I can throw together some ingredients to make a soup or sauce or dressing or dip, but nothing so chef-defining as a baked good.

I need guidelines for that shit.

I also need guidelines for the beginning of vegan cooking, because as much as I like to think that I know everything about nutrition, combining gluten-free, dairy-free, protein and calcium-rich food stuffs in my head is libel to cause something to blow.

Enter those cookbooks I have.

Tonight’s dinner had two functions: chase away the cold bug that Zoë and I seem to have picked up, and use up some of the veggies I’ve got in the crisper. Because I don’t wanna be sick, and I might have embraced one-too-many a produce sale in the past week.

Can you say home-made veggie stock and pasta sauce?

Based on the recipe from La Dolce Vegan! Vegan Livin’ Made Easy*, here’s the recipe:

2 medium leeks, sliced (white and pale green parts only)
2 T. olive oil (I used extra virgin. Hah.)
2 medium potatoes, cubed (I used one white and one Yukon gold)
2 c. vegetable stock (I used Campbell’s, but I’ll try it again soon with home-made)
1/4 t. salt and ground black pepper, each (I used sea salt and fresh black peppercorns)
1/2 c. cold coconut milk
Dried dill weed, to garnish

1. Sauté the leeks until they become transparent in half the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the rest of the oil and the potatoes, continue sautéing for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent sticking.
3. Add remaining ingredients, except the coconut milk, and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until potatoes are done.
5. Using a hand blender or food processor, blend the soup until smooth, adding 1/4 cup of coconut milk at a time.
6. Garnish with a few sprinkles of dried dill weed.

Serves two, heartily.

* Affiliate link