My cat likes beans!

This has nothing to do with cooking - but this is my cat, Andrew. I have (and he has) discovered recently that he LOVES beans. Any kind of legume - he loves them. Dry beans that have been soaked - not so much. But if you open a can of beans, he will RUN to the kitchen and beg for one. I don't like to give him one (he isn't supposed to eat salty food to help avoid UTIs) but I don't like to hear him cry either. What's a girl to do?

Quick Yeasted Pizza Dough, Processor-Style and CD's Favorite Greek Pizza

We decided to have pizza tonight. Actually, I wanted to run to the store and grab a frozen pizza and call it a day but, at the last second I had a change of heart and decided to see what CD had to offer in the pizza department. My sweetheart used to live next to this little hole-in-the-wall pizza dive that served Pizza Capriosia which was just a good, Greek style pizza.CD's recipe sounded similar so I gave it a whirl.
The dough was too easy to pull together; its only down fall of course being that it takes almost an hour to rise. The hour, however gave me time to run to the store for ingredients. I did substitute canned artichokes for frozen and didn't pile the pizza as high as CD suggests but otherwise followed the recipe. Finally. Not since Kung Poa Tofu have my sweetheart and I agreed on a recipe being 'Great' or 'Okay'. This one gets two very full thumbs up. We can't wait to have it again and show it off to friends. I almost wish we had invited friends over...but that would mean less for me to eat. Maybe next time. There is one down fall though - I can never again eat that frozen Greek style pizza now that I know how it 'should' taste.

"Pot Roast" of Seitan, Aunt Gloria-Style

Typical. My husband thought it was great and I thought it was only okay. Oh well. It was good. Very important to let the stew boil and then simmer to drive the sauce into the seitan - otherwise it's not good. I've never had horseradish before and I thought I'd put in too much but by the time it was done melding, it was fine. Maybe even a little too sweet but once it was mixed with rice, it was right on the money. I might not make it again on my own, but since the man liked it, I might. We shall see.

Gigi Hamilton's Really Hot, Really Delectable Mixed Beans with a Lot of Ginger

Excellent. So good. I made a whole pot of these and we ate them all over the course of a few days. I've never had hominy (I had to look up what it was online to help me find it in the store) but it was great! Every time I had these at work and would heat it up, people would ask what I was having. I LOVE having great smelling, vegetarian dishes that people seem surprised smell so good. We will be making these beans again and again. The 1/4 cup of ginger is a lot, but I diced it in the food processor in a fit of laziness* and it worked great!


*If I had to cook food the hard way (the way our mothers and grandmothers had to) I doubt I would cook so much. I mean, you've read how much I love my food processor. Really. We would just eat out, I'm afraid.

Chocolate-Orange Biscotti

I've never had biscotti. Ever. But our neighbor wanted cookies and the man isn't here to make them so I tried this recipe out. Pretty good. I didn't realize they are twice baked (or even that biscotti is supposed to be crunchy) but I figured it out in the end. My friend's dad is a chef and she said that my biscotti turned out great - that I only need to serve it with coffee and it would be perfect. Seeing as how I'm not a choco-holic, I'm happier to make this and share it, but it's a good "company's coming for tea" treat. Plus, now I know what the heck it's supposed to look like!

Maple-Oatmeal Cookies

I love oatmeal raisin cookies so these are an obvious choice to try out. They are good. Quite subtle, but good. I had trouble finding grade B syrup and settled for grade A. The maple-ness of the cookies was perhaps too subtle and I suspect the grade B syrup would fix that. These were great though and I'll make them again when I have a sweet tooth - but not a raging sweet tooth.

P'oatage of Asparagus, White Wine and Lemon

I love soup. And this sounds so fancy. It's only okay in my book. I probably won't make it again. I thought the wine was a little strong - which could just be the wine I used - but I can think of better ways to use the asparagus (like the oven-roasted recipe in this book!). I did like making it as I've been introduced to nutritional yeast and I got to use our hand blender we got as a wedding gift and floating those asparagus heads in the soup was great fun! But, like I said, I probably won't be making it again. Using oatmeal to thicken the soup really did make it nice and creamy without all the fat - a tip I may be utilizing again sometime........