It's Sunday, and You know What That Means...Seitan!

One thing I really do miss about my meat eating days is the bacon. Salty, crispy, smoky.....ahhh, I remember it well. Unfortunately, none of the vegan bacon I've bought and tried has been fit to eat. (Like hickory flavoured shoe leather, basically.) The "tofu bacon" recipe I tried was OK, but looked weird and tended to burn.

So with Sunday morning brunch in my mind, I set out to make my own "seitan bacon."

I mixed up two batches of seitan, both flavoured to be somewhat smoky and salty, and one with extra ketchup and paprika added to make it pink. I rolled out seven slabs approximately the same size, stacked them up and used the rolling pin to "smoosh" the layers together. I trimmed the ragged edges off, balled the scraps of seitan together and stuck it in a bag in the fridge for another day.

I sat the seitan stack in the refrigerator overnight wrapped in wax paper with heavy juice jugs on top. Yesterday morning, I wrapped it in foil, and baked for a short time on low heat. (The heat carmelized the maple syrup in the seitan just a little, making the outside so shiny and pretty I was tempted to lick it. I refrained, BTW.)

Last night after baseball. Bob got out my chef's knife (I call her Big Bertha), sharpened her to within an inch of her life, and sliced me bacon up!

Breakfast this morning was a big scoff, with my vegan bacon all crisped up, some homemade hashbrown potatoes, and a big pan of tofu "scrambled eggs."

This was my first time trying tofu this way, and Bob and I were both impressed. I didn't use a recipe per se; I've read so many different recipes over the last year and a half that I kinda got the general gist in my head.

The bacon was great- the texture was perfect, but I think that the next batch I make will have more salt and more maple syrup. After we ate and sat back patting our tummies, this conversation ensued:

Me: "So Bob, do you have any pithy comments to make about breakfast that I can use on my blog?"

Bob: (Stares at me with confused expression)

Me: "Pithy. You know, concise, meaningful? Somthing pithy."

Bob: "Well, ahhh, I ate two platefuls. Is that pithy enough for you."

Yes Bob, I guess it is. Thanks.

Supper was actually the result of a suggestion from my son a few weeks ago. (Who really does seem to come up with some cool ideas...still waters must really run deep... )

He suggested my next seitan experiment be "Chicken legs." I thought that was a cool challenge. Ironically enough, just a few days ago, Vivacious Vegan sends me a comment and suggests the same thing! It must be fate; I was born to make these suckers. (Ironically, I never, ever liked chicken legs; they always seemed too raw to me, and something about gnawing flesh off of (sometimes bloody) bone didn't sit well with my psyche.) But anyway, I love a challenge, so away we go!

I made up a batch of seitan, this time using extra firm tofu, gluten and chickea flour. I wish I had written down the recipe, folks, but I really didn't intend to replicate this again, so I just "winged it." Naturally my husband chose this occasion to say this is the best seitan I've ever made. It figures, the bastard...

But! I do remember pretty closely what ingredients I used, so I'll write it down, test it again, and then share it. I promise!

Making "legs" using the seitan and sections of wooden dowell was trickier than I expected. For one thing, I couldn't for the life of me accurately remember what a real lchicken leg looked like. ( I avoid the meat section at the supermarket like the plague.) So I just did my best. I had the two kids hovering over me, and we all had competing visions of what a chicken leg should look like: Me and Courtney: Whole leg "bone" should be covered. Daniel: "Leg" should have a discernible handle for holding. So in the interest of family harmony I made some of each....

I then simmered them on low in a 250 degree oven in a chicken-ish broth type substance for an hour..

And then for twenty minutes in a dry 325 oven....

(If this whole thing looks pretty weird to you at about this point, don't worry: It looked pretty weird to me, too.)

When suppertime rolled around, I made up a spicy fried chik'n coating using flour, crushed cornflake crumbs, salt, pepper, garlic, and other spices too numerous to name. I dipped my "legs" in soymilk, dredged them in the flour mixture, and deep-fried them for a few minutes.

(Yeah, I know they don't really look like drumsticks, but use your damn imagination, would ya??)

Check 0ut supper...I made coleslaw too, but since I don't like it, it isn't on my plate.

I also made dinner rolls....a kind of garlic-chive "parkerhouse" style roll. Yummy!

Supper won me rave reviews tonight, and I'm basking in the afterglow. Nice to be appreciated once in a while...

I also made a few other things today, like Oatmeal Brown Bread....

and teeny tiny little loaves of white bread....I have no idea what I'm going to do with these, but they are awfully cute!

And that was Sunday. We did a few other things too, but frankly, my fingers are too tired of typing to tell you about it. But I bet a few of you are wondering if I had come to an undertstanding with my somewhat unhelpful (by times) kids...well, I sure did.

Here is my son scrubbing the floor.... (accursed stuff...can't wait till we rip it up!)

And here is a pic of Dan cleaning out the silverware drawer....

I did get a pretty hilarious shot of my daughter cleaning the bathtub, but gee...it wasn't very flattering, and heck, believe it or not, I was a 13 year old girl once too. I understand....We'll delete that shot and call it a day.

So that was my Sunday, folks. I'm going now to relax a while. I have a very, VERY busy week ahead. Should made for some (somewhat) more interesting blogging. in the meantime, I hope you all had a sunny and restful weekend.

Peace and Seitan!