The painting of the living room continues full speed ahead. Bob still doesn't want anyone to help him, so other than handing him wet paper towels and beer, so my presence was not needed. And since it has now rained all week and continues as I type this, the only thing to do was to hang out in the kitchen and cook stuff.
(Dan was at a friends house, and Courtney chose to spend most of the day in bed with the cat, reading.....she was so into this book, she didn't even venture downstairs when the smell of cookies started wafting up the steps. Or even when her father got out the Skil saw and started taking the stairs apart....that must have been some good book!)
I started off the day by making some "Butterscotch Chip" cookies. The thing that makes these cookies different from the usual is the addition of a package of butterscotch pudding mix to the batter. Yummy...!
I also decided to make bread....."Regular old bread", for Bob, who gets cross with me when I play around with spices in bread too much. So this is plain old Molasses-Oatmeal bread, perfect for breakfast with peanut butter. I had enough dough for a mother and a baby loaf.
For lunch, I made spaghetti with ground round, along with garlic fingers using a prepared crust. Everyone else thought this meal was OK, but it tasted like shit to me. Not sure why, just had no flavour. I threw most of this plate in the composter.
I also made some "experimental soup". This soup is supposed to taste like a Loaded Baked Potato. It's got onions, veggie bacon, baked potato, Tofutti sour cream and just a scooch of grated soy cheddar. It was good, but really rich. I think I'll have to play with this one a while.
Bob must have felt rejuvenated after HIS lunch though, because that's when he decided he needed to perform some major surgery on the steps. He removed all the spindles, and moved the railing an inch to the left. He thinks it looks better. I think he just didn't want to paint all those spindles!
For supper, I had planned on making a "meatloaf" in the slow-cooker. It's made with a combination of wheat gluten, TVP, onions and grated carrots, etc. It only took 3 hours to cook, and looked bee-yootiful!
We had it for supper, along with mashed potatoes, veggies, and gravy.
The "meatloaf" was great, but I still need to play with the ratios of ingredients a little. I think more TVP would have made it less firm and more crumbly, like a regular meatloaf would be. I think I'll add more veggies next time too. I CAN say however that despite these proposed changes, this meatless meatloaf is already heads and tails better than anything I've tried from other vegan cookbooks, so I promise you the recipe when I've perfected it.
Speaking of promised recipes, I promised earlier in the week to give you all the recipe for the seitan bologna-slash- ham that I made. I was going to, but after eating it a few times, I began to think that I could make it even better. I had no issues with the flavour, but it seemed denser than real mechanically-separated meat would be. So I made another batch, this time substituting silken tofu for the extra-firm, and boy, it was better! It soaked up more broth during the cooking time, and had a slightly softer and more even texture.
Check out the food porn shots...first, sliced up on the plate....
and a gratuitous close-up...you simply must click on it, it's glistening....
This stuff is stupendous! I think it would be great in any recipe that calls for ham, and it's really good fried up for breakfast. We cubed it up and fried it with diced potatoes yesterday morning for a breakfast-hash kind of a meal. Yummy!
So here you go, without further ado, the perfect recipe for vegan bologna , minus the eyeballs and veins!
Vegan Ham/Vegan Bologna
Mix in a Bowl:
1 1/2 cups gluten flour,
1/3 cup soy flour.
Set aside.
In a blender, mix the following:
150 g Silken Tofu (about 5 ounces)
1-cup water
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp black pepper
1 ¼ tsp garlic salt
1 ¼ tsp onion powder
¾ tsp liquid smoke
½ MSG (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vegetable bouillon
1 ½ tsp paprika
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
Blend until smooth. Pour into bowl with dry ingredients and mix well. Add extra gluten flour as needed, to knead into a dry ball. Let sit 1 hour. Knead again into a firm, smooth ball.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large juice can with foil and/or parchment paper. Place gluten ball in the can and press down firmly into the can.
Mix together and pour over the gluten:
1-cup water
½ tsp liquid smoke
1 Tbsp vegetable bouillon
1 Tbsp tomato juice
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp garlic salt
½ tsp onion powder
Cover can with foil and place can in oven. Lower temperature to 250 degrees and let bake three and a half hours. Remove from can and cool on wire rack.
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So there you have it, vegan hammy perfection. If you try it, let me know how it works out for you.
So that was Saturday! I think the painting may be done by tonight, but I'm not showing y'all the before and after shots until my new sofa moves it. (My old sofa looks like WWF wrestling takes place on it. Either that or animal husbandry.)
As soon as this goddamn rain lets off, we'll go pick it up. Regardless, me and the kids are taking off after lunch to go to the mall, because I'm feeling a little shack-happy stuck in the house. Hope you have a fascinating Saturday, and I'll check in tomorrow.
Peace and Bologna!
