Pie Resources

The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion is a great resources to start with but here are some other good online reads:

Butter Pie Crust at Epicurious

Peach or Apple Pie

My Wooden Spoon Perfect Pie Crust

I made a mess.

Gobble gobble,

Sarah

Honey Cake

I made this Honey Cake from Epicurious with less oil and some applesauce instead.  Minus the liquor.  

This post is straight to the point.

-Sar

Banilla Banana Bread

At school we always seem to receive more bananas for snack than the children (and I) can consume.   I am totally okay with this and do NOT plan on informing the kitchen.  I just carry the overripe bananas from Madison Avenue to York (very carefully), stick them in the freezer, and daydream about banana treats like the muffins I made before and this Mark Bittman inspired banana bread.

Banilla Banana Bread with inspiration from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

(Printable Recipe)

Prep time 15 minutes

Cook time 1 hour

1 cup pastry/cake flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar

8 tablespoons Stonyfield Banilla Yogurt (personal favorite flavor)

2 eggs
3 very/overripe bananas mashed with a fork until smooth
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
optional:
1/4+ cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1/2 cup shredded dried coconut** this is Mark Bittman's not-so-secret ingredient

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
Mix the dry ingredients together.  Add wet ingredients (yogurt, eggs, bananas, vanilla) slowly, stirring.  Once you have a somewhat consistent mixture (it's okay if there are some chunks) gently fold in the pecans, coconut, or other dried fruit to your liking.
Pour the batter into your well greased loaf pan and bake for 50-70 minutes.  The classic toothpick test and nice golden browning will tell you when it's done.  Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing.

For the full fat version use butter instead of yogurt.

Due to some sort of oven malfunction I actually made this banana bread twice in a matter of 72 hours.  Some of the center of the first batch was undercooked.  Check out the area right in the center of the loaf:

By undercooked I mean to say that it was basically raw.  Which I find rather bizarre because I cooked the second loaf for approximately the same 65 minutes at 350 and found it to be just right if not a tad overdone...  Anyways, oven issues aside, here's a weird picture of the second batch spooning with two left over bananas:

Pre-baked and post-baked bananas living in harmony on the Upper Yeast Side.
The second loaf was much more successful.  The best part is that I actually had enough bananas in the freezer, freshly, overripe brought-home-from-school bananas on the counter to have extra after two loaves of bread.  Wild.

Do doo do do do bana-muh-nah
Do doo do do,
Sarah

Mexican Night: Seitan Tacos

We have to start this post with a story.  Once upon a time, Lily and Sarah made HOT enchiladas on the last day of the month.  With the best of intentions, they vowed from that day forth to have a Mexican themed dinner night on the last day of every month.  We have kept this promise a handful of times.  The months we have missed have been due to travel, yoga, work, etc.  More often than not we have make-up Mexican nights.  We missed February all together but let's be real: February don't count for nothin.

Here are the tacos we made this month:

Seitan Tacos
(Printable Recipe)
Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 10 minutes
Serves 1 Lily and 1 Sarah

For the seitan:
1/4 large red onion, diced
1/2 lb seitan
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, diced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder

Other topping suggestions:
1/2 tomato
Some chopped romaine lettuce
Shredded cheese
Salsa
Sour Cream

Start by sauteing the onion.

Add the seitan and saute until browned.

Warm taco shells in the oven.

Arrange ingredients buffet style to be assembled.

This Mexican night wasn't just any old Mexican night.  This was Sarah's first homemade taco night.  She had eaten out at Cascabel Taqueria recently, where she had her first taco ever (Lily still can't believe how absurd that is), but as a vegetarian growing up in a Kosher household she never had eaten a homemade taco.  In fact, Lily had to teach her how to assemble them - it was a real learning experience.

There will definitely be more tacos to come since they're delicious and fun, but also because the taco shell package came with 18 and we only ate 5 tonight (a broken shell served as an appetizer).

Ole!
Lil & Sar

P.S. VOTE today!  We have delayed this post in order to avoid inundating you with posts on Halloween.

Satan Stew for Halloween (Seitan Stew on the other 364 days)

Two posts on one day!?  It MUST be a holiday.   First and foremost, happy halloween, everyone!  I hope that you all fill your candy quota and have fabulous costumes.  If you're not into the whole dressing up thing, that's cool too - but I do hope you get to enjoy some delicious pumpkin flavored foods at the very least.

Now, onto the subject of this post.  Seitan Stew, which I continue to pronounce as "Satan" Stew, is so delicious it's scary.  After Sar concocted a lifetime supply of seitan, my first impulse was to make stew.  It's one of my favorite comfort foods, but since I've stopped eating meat for the most part, I haven't gotten to enjoy it.  Tofu stew just doesn't sound right...and veggie stew is good, but it's missing that certain something (beef?) that makes it such a hearty and wonderful dish.  Seitan has the right combo of flavor and texture to fit right into a vegetarian stew and the name makes it perfect for a Halloween post :)

"Satan" Stew
(Printable Recipe)
Serves 6

1 lb of seitan, cubed
1 medium white onion, finely diced
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs of celery, finely diced
2 cups of mushrooms, chopped
1 turnip, chopped
1 sweet potato, chopped
1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, chopped
1/2-3/4 cups red wine
4 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons dried parsley (or a few tablespoons chopped fresh parsley)
salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon corn starch
2 tablespoons cold water
1 lb egg noodles, cooked and drained

What to do:
In a frying pan, saute the seitan until it's well browned.  In a large pot, saute the onions, celery, and peppers until softened.  Add the rest of the veggies, salt & pepper, and seitan and cook together for a few minutes.

Now pour in the wine and get the party started.

Add the seasonings and broth bring it up to a boil.  Place the lid over the pot so that it's not fully sealed, but mostly covered.  (I hope you understand what I'm saying there, because I forgot to take a picture of that part.)  Allow the stew to bubble away for about half an hour, or until the veggies are all cooked.  In a small dish, mix the cornstarch and water to make a slurry and then stir this into the stew.  You should notice it thicken up a bit after a few minutes of cooking.  This is optional if you're into thinner broth, for the record.  

Serve over egg noodles immediately.  Enjoy with a glass of the red wine, if you're feeling festive - which I always am.

This stew was delicious right off the stove, but it was even better the next day reheated for lunch because the flavors really got a chance to blend and deepen over night.  If you're a vegetarian and tend to get made fun of at work for the "weird" lunches you bring (tofu-phobes are the worst...am i right??) this is the perfect solution.  Two of my coworkers asked me if it was beef stew!  Seitan is such a trickster.

Boo x 2!
Lil

PS - Sar and I like to eat ourselves out of house and home before grocery shopping (we've never been labeled wasteful or excessive) and one morning I found myself with nothing to eat for breakfast.  No milk, no eggs, no cereal, no bread, no yogurt.  Nothing.  I heated myself up some of this stew and it was a fabulous way to start the day.