Baking Powder Biscuits and White Bean Tempeh Sausage Gravy

Have I ever mentioned I grew up on a farm? Or that my family hails from the South? Not quite Confederate Flag south, more like peach cobbler, dirt roads and biscuits and gravy south. And, it is upon the last of those loves that I focus.
My sweetheart loves biscuits and gravy and I recall having seconds (and thirds) of that particular dish myself. So, having learned to trust anything Isa suggests, I jumped at the chance to make this. And, as usual, she was right on the money. It was SUPER easy to make and absolutely delicious! The sausage was easy to make (I used ground tofu). I was concerned at first that the spices might be a bit much. My sweetheart has Crohn's disease and can't handle too many spices or fiber (from whole seeds). The recipe calls for fennel which is a classic problem food for him. But, knowing I would be 'diluting' the sausage mixture with pureed beans, I plowed ahead. And the gravy turned out wonderfully! Guests would NEVER guess the gravy base was made of pureed beans and it didn't bother him at all.
The sausage crumble recipe is very flexible and can be substituted anytime a recipe calls for sausage. However, as a precaution toward my sweetheart's digestive tract, anytime I make this sausage and don't use it for gravy (when the bean puree 'dilutes' the spices), I only use half the fennel. It doesn't seem to bother him and we both like it!
Anyhow, the gravy is perfect and the biscuits follow suit. I followed all the standard crust-making rules (keep everything cold, handle as little as possible, etc) and the biscuits turned out kick-ass! Soft and flaky and melt-in-your-mouth. I know vegan food is good and that, often it's difficult to tell the difference. But this is so dead-on, so reminiscent of the food of my youth, I can hardly believe it. I made it for brunch for my scared-of-anything-healthy-sounding family and they ate every last bite.

THAT'S southern comfort food.

Stats:
vegan
Makes: About a dozen biscuits and gravy to cover it
Find it: On pages 26 & 27 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Better than the real deal

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

I'm not a big fan of chocolate, but I made these twice in the span of one week. My mother used to make non-chocolate thumbprint cookies when I was small with a little dot of frosting in the middle. As I recall, she used her actual thumb which I think leaves a special little trace of love (gag!). So I was happy to try these even though I wimped out and didn't use my thumb (they're hot!).
At first blush, I thought I'd messed up as the batter is quite thick, but they turned out perfectly the first time (the second time was a different story). I used several types of jam (surprise!) to try them out: Red raspberry, apricot, black raspberry and strawberry. That's the order in which I liked them and will use again.
Feel free to add more flour if the batter is in any way runny. You need it to be quite thick and able to hold the shape of a ball before baking. About halfway through baking, you pull them out and make an indentation (if you're tough you can use your thumb, if you're me you use the back of a melon baller), drop in a teaspoon of jam and pop them back in for 5 more minutes. Done.
And wonderful.
Eating them is a delightful, moist bite of chocolate and then a surprising little blast of jam. The red raspberry and the apricot play off the chocolate so well. You might want to make a double batch to ensure that someone else gets one. Just one.

Stats:
Vegan
Makes: 2 dozen
Find it: On page 205 of Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Taste: Great!

Tempeh Bacon

I used to love bacon as a kid. I liked it cold and burnt. I can't remember the last time I had from-the-pig-bacon. And, to be honest, I don't really miss it. But I did jump at the chance to try this Tempeh Bacon recipe.
I made a whole batch but only made a few strips, putting the rest in the fridge to use for a good breakfast for the next several days.
It was really easy to make even if I had to wait at least an hour before I could eat it (for marinating purposes). I knew it was a good recipe when, after turning the strips in the marinade, my hands smelled TERRIFIC.
Don't think this is a replacement for bacon - you'll never fool a meat eater with this. But it IS quite good and certainly earns a place on your brunch plate.
Isa recommends taking the garlic bits out (I minced mine) but I left them in. This is the first time I've ever used liquid smoke and it's an invaluable ingredient. It really adds that BBQ-ed/smoked layer to the bacon.
I also sliced my tempeh a bit thin (remember, I liked bacon burnt) so I got more servings than Isa suggests. But it seems to have turned out just fine.

STATS
Vegan
Makes: About 12-15 strips depending on how thin you slice it
Cooking Time: About 10 minutes (plus a minimum of an hour to marinade)
Find It: On page 23 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Excellent

Sunny Blueberry-Corn Muffins, Carrot-Raisin Muffins, The Best Pumpkin Muffins

MUFFINS!

I got invited to a brunch and, thanks to my mom, it's impossible for me to show up to an invited meal empty-handed. So, I made some muffins.
First up, Sunny Blueberry-Corn Muffins.
Good. Not great. But good. I think next time, I will coat the blueberries in sugar instead of flour as they needed a little boost. Also, I would like to try it with smaller blueberries next time. But they were still good. In fact, they were my sweetheart's favorites - much to my surprise. I also substituted about half the required oil with applesauce to reduce the calorie content. I don't think it made a noticeable difference and they were very moist.

STATS
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: About 13 muffins
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Find it: On page 50 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Good. I give it a B

Next up, Carrot-Raisin Muffins. Excellent. I actually substituted dates for raisins and I think they came out just fine. I thought there might be too much carrot in here but it's just right. These are delicious. The spices are just right, too. Enough to notice but not enough to overpower anything.

STATS
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: About 13 muffins
Cooking Time: About 30 minutes
Find it: On page 47 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Excellent! Make them for breakfast!

Last up - The Best Pumpkin Muffins. I made these because I'd heard they're good and also because my sweetheart loves pumpkin donuts. I thought he might really like them and he did, but he liked the blueberry ones better. I thought these were out of this world. Again, I used applesauce (and didn't do my homework so I used a 1:1 ratio instead of a 2:3) and they were a little more dense than I suspect they were supposed to be. But no harm done and that's easily fixed next time. These, too had excellent spices to accompany the pumpkin. SORT OF like a pumpkin pie...but not. They were really good.

STATS
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: About 13 muffins
Cooking Time: About 30 minutes
Find It: On page 52 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: EXCELLENT!

I actually only baked about 3 of each muffin and, as per Isa's advice, froze the rest in separate muffin wrappers. So now, when I want a muffin, I don't have to bake (and then eat) a whole batch, I can just pop one in the toaster oven (in a tiny bowl) and have a fresh baked muffin in about 20 minutes. I tried it this morning and it worked great!

Isa Pizza - including Pizza Dough, Pizza Sauce, Basil-Tofu Ricotta and Classic Pesto

My goodness, is this good! I think it might be better than PV's Greek Style Pizza...but I don't know. I guess I'll have to make it a bunch more to decide!

This is one of those annoying recipes that is five recipes in one (see title). But I was able to put everything else together while the dough was rising and, as usual, once you've done it a couple of times, it's not so hard.

The dough was easy to make but this is coming from someone that has made dough before. Still, Isa's directions are great and can walk even the most naive of virgins successfully through it.

The Ricotta was easy to make. It's okay. I'm sure I'll use it for something in the future but it wasn't "eat me out of the bowl before the dough is ready" good. Like the pesto.

I've never had or made pesto before. But this was SO GOOD I was eating it out of the food processor before the dough was even close to ready.

The sauce was easy as (pizza) pie and is a great, basic sauce.

I didn't use mushrooms or olives but I did throw on some onions. I'm not sure the pizza needed it. It was interesting enough without them. I really can't say enough great things about this pizza. My only word of warning is that the pesto came out a bit salty and I may omit the 1.5 teaspoons called for in the recipe. Additionally, I'll be spreading the pesto on a bit more thin next time.

But no complaints. This pizza is DELICIOUS! And it's vegan.

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: Two 14" pizzas
Cooking Time: 1.5 hours (mostly waiting for the dough to rise)
Find It: On page 131 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Quit reading this and make it now!