Experiments
There’s a lot to be said for seeing the sun come up in the morning. Sadly most of the words involved are swear words, because I am not a morning person. But since sleep eluded me last night for some reason, I found myself puttering around in the kitchen at 6am this morning, and decided to make muffins.
Only one problem — I was out of some key ingredients, and specifically vegan sour cream or yogurt. Hmph. But I did have soy milk, so I decided to try the yogurt substitution I listed as untried in my Substitutions post. To replace 1/2 cup of the stuff I didn’t have, I mixed 3/4 T of cornstarch with a scant 1/2 cup of soy milk. Then I microwaved the mixture for 30 seconds, stirred it, and microwaved for another 15 seconds or so. Stirred in a splash of apple cider vinegar and let it cool. The results? Thickened soy buttermilk. It was a neat little chemistry experiment. I added the results to my muffin batter with some minor trepidation, but without cause — they worked out just fine. Hurray for an easy to make yogurt substitute! (And muffins too. 
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K.I.S.S.
Sometimes lunch is a simple affair. Simple is good. Today I was trying to find enough energy to make something more than toast when I happened to catch one of Celine’s last posts at Have Cake Will Travel.
Seitan bacon. Mmmmmmm. And it looked easy.
Thirty minutes later I sat down to enjoy a yummy, yummy sandwich — a real Montreal bagel, toasted, with seitan bacon, tomatoes, and a couple slices of Sheese. Very, very yummy. I’ll be making that bac’n again. (Tomorrow in fact, since there’s some left. )
Feeling blue
Saturday morning saw me awake at around 5am, and up by 5:30. Ug. Have I mentioned that I’m so not a morning person? But there are advantages to seeing the sun come up — like realizing there’s time to make fresh muffins for everyone, to start a crazy-busy day. And lo, there were fresh, warm blueberry muffins for breakfast, and they disappeared so fast I didn’t get a single picture. But that’s okay, that just gave me an excuse to make more today.
Today’s version was, if anything, even better than Saturday’s. These muffins are surprisingly light and fluffy — so much so that my gf thought I’d adapted a cupcake recipe!
I love the fruitiness of these, particularly with today’s cranberry-blueberry mix. They’re not nearly as full of fat as everyone thinks either. For Saturday’s version I used Earth Balance, and they had a definite buttery taste. For today’s version I switched to oil, which gives a more neutral flavour that lets the fruit really come through. Mmmmm, fruit. Can’t wait for berry season!
Irish mash
Some dishes just don’t look appetizing, no matter how tasty they are. Colcannon’s one of those. It’s an Irish dish consisting of mashed potatoes with kale or cabbage, much like the Bubble and Squeak I remember my parents making when I was a kid.
As mush-like as it looks, Colcannon’s both tasty and a great way to use up kale or cabbage. Kale, in my case. I swear I purchased a bunch of Miracle Kale, because no matter how much of it I use, there’s always some left. This was my third major dish using the same bunch, and there’s plenty left to stuff potstickers with (but I’m getting ahead of myself — that’s dinner!).
As well as my lunchtime Colcannon turned out, I can’t help thinking it would make fabulous potato pancakes for breakfast. And come to think of it, there are leftovers…
Overnight sticky buns
A friend of mine made cinnamon buns on the weekend, and the mere thought drove me mad with desire. But it’s not like I could just run out and buy a vegan sticky bun. Not around here anyway. So I spent a little time looking at her recipe, and eventually crafted a vegan version. They’re not as complicated as they look.
