Pancakes and The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook

Breakfast this morning was Chocolate Chip Pancakes. I used the recipe from The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. It is a very basic recipe that I always have the ingredients for and the batter comes together very quickly. I usually add something like blueberries or nuts or chocolate chips. I love pancakes!

The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook was one of the first vegan cookbooks I bought when I became vegan. It has a lot of good, basic recipes. The copy I have is the original edition published in 1978. There is a new edition available now.
Here are some of my favorites:
Jala-pinto Dip--which I use in tamales and as refried beans
Chocolate Pudding--another one with ingredients I always have on hand
Tofu onion dip

It has a section on making tofu which I have tried once or twice. I would like to try it again sometime. There are also some recipes for using the soy pulp that results from making tofu.
It is very well worn. I don't have the cover anymore and it has come apart so the pages are not in order anymore. I don't even know if I have all the pages. I think it is time for a new one.

Fried Rice

Last night I made some Fried Rice for dinner. My husband has been experimenting with the wok lately. I have never been that great at using our wok, but after watching him make some great meals from it I decided to give it a go. We have been using a cookbook called Chinese Meatless Cooking by Stella Lau Fessler. I picked it up at a garage sale or thrift store a few years ago. It is not a vegan cookbook; in fact it even includes fish sauce in some recipes. But I just make substitutions as needed.
The fried rice recipe included Five-Spice Pressed Bean Curd Cakes which I had made earlier in the day. That involved pressing the tofu, simmering it in a marinade and then letting it sit in the marinade for at least 4 hours. Once you have that on hand and some freshly steamed or leftover rice, the Fried Rice comes together very quickly in the wok. Seriously, like 3 minutes of cooking time. We are finding that you really have to have everything prepped and ready to go when you are using a wok.

Today I used some more of the Five-Spice Pressed Bean Curd on a bagel with soy mayo and spinach. It made a great sandwich.

Bagels

I have a Toastmaster Bread Maker that I have had for almost 9 years and I decided to pull it out the other day. The original motivation was pizza crust. Then I started looking through the recipe book that came with it and decided to make some bagels also. I had used this recipe before and remembered liking them.

They are very basic. Just water, sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. The bread maker does all the work to make the dough. Then I made the dough into 8 bagels and let them rise. Boiled them in sugar water and brushed them with an ener-g egg replacer 'egg' and topped half with poppy seeds and the other half with sesame seeds. They then go in the oven for 25 minutes.

The results are yummy bagels that I've been enjoying for my breakfasts.

Jumping in

Hello! I have been reading vegan food blogs for a few years now and thinking about starting my own for some time. Well, finally I started thinking about so much that I decided to jump in and do it. I really enjoy being in the kitchen cooking and baking. I love sharing my food with others and this blog is a good way for me to do that without inviting everyone over for dinner.

I am mostly a recipe follower when I cook. I have many cookbooks and love trying new recipes from them and the many blogs out there. I hope to start adapting and creating new recipes so that I have some to post here for you.