Xmas Pizza

It is our tradition (2 years old, but tradition nonetheless) to have a green and red pizza for Christmas. It didn't happen this year, because we were invited to over to Mark's brother's. But we did have it the day after:


Thick honey crust, red tomato sauce and green bell peppers, and very thinly-sliced onion (no color, but lots of flavor) - what a nice tradition :)

Pop-Overs

Christmas is a great holiday! If only because of the days off and the gifts! We got an ebelskiver pan from the CrazyLikeThat lady, along with a recipe book for all kinds of filled pancakes and other ebelskivian goodies. I couldn't wait to make something, and the healthiest-looking recipe (we had way too many unhealthy-but-delicious food all day) was that of pop-overs, which we ate alongside some pomegranate-pecan salad (with greens from our garden, of course):


I can't wait to try some of the more luscious-looking, savory or sweet, recipes in the cookbook!

Potatonion Bread

This is such a moist (from the potato) and flavorful (from the onion) bread! It is delicious by itself, and it tremendously improved the lentil-mustard greens soup when dipped in it.

Bread Bowls with Lentil-Mustard Greens Soup

Last night we put the mustard greens from our garden in a lentil soup, and served it on yummy, fluffy bread bowls that Mark experimented with (he used all-purpose flour and some wheat gluten instead of bread flour).
The bread was delicious, and the soup was pretty good too, for a simple lentil soup.



To make the soup, I followed this recipe:

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb lentils
10 cups veggie broth
a bunch of mustard greens, cut to large strips

Cook onion in some olive oil in a large pot, until soft and golden-brown. Add garlic, then 10 cups of veggie broth. Add lentils and bring to a boil. Simmer with tilted lid for 20 minutes or so, till lentils are soft. Mash some of the lentils and return to the pot. Add the mustard greens, 1 T of soy sauce, black pepper, a bit of MSG, ground celery seed, 2 T lemon juice, and whatever other flavors you might want to add.

Onion Garlic Sicilian Pizza

Thick honey crust, roasted garlic, and onion. A nice accompaniment to this citrus salad.

Bread and Soup

If that's what prisoners would get in prisons, people would commit crimes just to get in :)

Despite the fact that our oven is standing in the middle of the kitchen again, Mark baked this delicious loaf of bread, and we ate it with a hot soup loaded with vegetables: onion, celery, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and corn. It was good on a night with below-freezing temperatures!

Dulce de Leche Cupcakes

We still don't have a kitchen (but we're almost there!), yet I had to bake some cupcakes for Vanessa's birthday. I decided to go with the Dulce sin Leche cupcakes, from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, of course, because the have some brown sugar in them (yum!), but the lack of kitchen sink and dishes forced me to make them with real dulce de leche. Everything else is vegan. The came out very cute with their little swirls of milky caramel:


But I covered them with some more dulce de leche, and topped with some crushed toasted walnuts:


The girls in the office loved them, but they weren't Mark's favorites.

Yeast Cake

For my birthday I requested an Yeast Cake filled with meringue. Yeast Cake is the literal translation of the Hebrew term for sweet breads.


Since it's shaped like roses, we call specifically call this type of sweet bread "rose cake".
It is very good. The only problem is, the instructions I gave Mark weren't very good. I have no real idea how to make something like that. I assumed it would be just like making cinnamon rolls, but instead of cinnamon, put meringue inside. Turned out the dough rose while baking and pushed all the filling out. :) It was still good. I think that next time I will ask my sister how she does it, though.

Vegan Potato Pizza

If you can't see why it's called a potato pizza, it's because the potatoes are inside the crust - that's right - just like potato bread! Yummy crust. Yummy toppings too: roasted garlic, corn kernels, broccoli, mushrooms, onion, and a little bit of rosemary. Vegan cheddar - not so yummy.
We found it at Sunflower Farmers Market for sale - Vegan Rella - it's discontinued - and figured we should try. We didn't like it at all - it doesn't have much flavor and it is best in sticking to every single part of your mouth.
Oh well, it was an interesting experience :)

Another Whey Bread

This time with whole wheat and sunflower seeds.

MMMYUM!

Whey Better

Making cheese like ricotta or paneer leaves you with about a gallon of whey. We heard that substituting it for water in bread recipes results in delicious, soft bread. It is very true!



Don't they look lovely?

Calzone From Scratch

Made with our own home-made ricotta!

'
Just like in the lasagna, the ricotta was so good in the calzone! Mmmm! 'Nuf said!

Bitter Beer Bread

This bread really should not be bitter. It's so easy to make, and has so much potential, that it's really a shame I used the kind of beer that's perfect for cake, but not so good for bread.
Seriously, doesn't it look good?


Ok, maybe not so much on the outside, but look inside:


And, as I said - SO easy to make!

Through the beer bitterness I could taste the sweetness I remembered from the amazing beer bread I had in some bar in Indianapolis or Cincinnati. I believe using a lighter beer (i.e., not EXTRA STOUT!!) would have made my bread taste exactly the same. Too bad, I still have 4 bottles of this beer. I guess I will just have to make more cakes and cupcakes with it.

BTW, since I couldn't finish all of the bread on the same night, I noticed that the bitterness subsided with time. The sweetness was more pronounced, so it wasn't all that bad :)

Greek Pizza

This is SO good. Next time you're making pizza, try these toppings:
Fresh spinach
sun dried tomatoes
olives
garlic
goat cheese

De-Li-Cious!

Midnight Oil

I am already used to the fact that when Mark makes dinner, we end up eating really late. That's especially true when he bakes breads. Last night was not an exception. Except maybe to the fact that we ended up eating even later than usual. I guess we broke our own record and started eating at half past midnight. How appropriate that it was slices of olive bread dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil!



The olives featured in the bread are the ones we made ourselves! We picked them a few months ago, got all the bitterness out of them and then marinated them. They turned out pretty good! We used a lot of olives for this bread, but we still have a lot more, so come and try some, if you like!


Aren't they pretty?