My Stove-top Mac and Cheeze

My friends at the PPK just gave me the topic for my MoFo blog tonight. I am going to post my recipe here. I didn't really find this recipe anywhere, I wanted something that tasted like kraft but creamier and more real frankly AND, I needed something to satisfy my daughther's yearnings for real cheesiness and gooeyness like everyone else gets to eat (she is an aspiring herbivore but for now just allergic to dairy). I looked at a few recipes, one on the FFV which is a blog that I love, and it had great flavors, but wasn't completely my style. I also used some of the thoughts from an article on Soul Vegetarian's Mac and cheese (which I have tweaked a bit too for mega creaminess and thickness and because I could never get theirs quite right). I am finally happy with what I have come up with and I hope you enjoy it.

Ty's Stove-Top Mac and Cheese
1/2 box of pasta (sometimes I pick macaroni, other times, I pick more fun pasta)
3/4 to 1 whole package of Mori-Nu firm vacuum packed silken tofu
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup plain unsweetened soy milk (soy creamer also works really well)
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white miso (or whatever miso you have)
1/2 tsp umeboshi paste
1 Tbsp umeboshi vinegar (in a pinch dijon mustard might work to replace the umeboshi ingredients maybe)

Cook pasta according to directions in a nice size sauce pan. Meanwhile, add all the remaining ingredients to a blender or magic bullet, and blend until smooth. Drain pasta, reserve some pasta water, just in case you need to thin out the sauce. Add the pasta back into the sauce pan along with the blended cheeze sauce, and stir gently over medium low heat until it's fully folded in. Then enjoy.

The munchkin actually loves the mac and cheeze, so of course I am pleased. My wonderful puppy (okay he's not a puppy) Kapone, looks on hopefully.
Nothing is very definite in my world of recipes. I don't keep cute index cards with pictures in the corner, filed neatly in a decorated recipe box. I generally experiment in the kitchen and if my family of omni's like it, I jot down the recipes on nearby scratch paper or printer paper and stuff them all into this well worn blue folder that sits on my cookbook shelf. I keep my own recipes and computer print-off's or magazine tear outs, I recommend everyone get a folder like this and mix it up some days, you might be glad you did.

My scribbled mac and cheeze recipe...
-Ty

Ode to the Pressure Cooker and Navy Bean Soup

This past weekend I made Navy Bean Soup for my family. It has been a regular in my home for a long time. It is a great simple recipe that I have tweaked and veganized (which didn't take much since it is a vegetarian recipe anyway) and I have to credit my ex-husband's religious background for the recipe. Trust me when I say there is nothing like a warm bowl of Navy Bean Soup to cure what ails you.


But, more than all of that, I must to give homage to my pressure cooker. Definitely the cheapest at the store and completely aluminum, however, the thing has changed my life. I cook beans and veggies without much fuss at all and since I LOVE dried beans, it makes my time in the kitchen so much more efficient and fun on beans day. I hadn't used one before my sister swore by it when cooking her mother's Guyanese Dal recipe (I might do that one to later this month, now that I think of it). I had just never been introduced, my family (a beautiful bunch of "suthun cookin'" divas) had never used one to my knowledge at all. Beans were done in a slow cooker or on the stove. So of course, that's how I did it.


Now I have seen the light, and I hope you will try to see it to if you haven't already. A pressure cooker is great for veg-heads, because often times, we need to infuse things with flavor. I am talking tender collards, perfect beans, and super-juicy-flavorful seitan dishes, that will make you think about smackin' your Momma (notice I said think). If you haven't given it a try, do. Read your instructions, maintain it well, and keep it super clean, and it will love you and your belly for years. I don't really follow a recipe, but here is what I usually do each time. I call it bean soup for the soul (much better than chicken soup for a cold, in my opinion).

Navy Bean Soup Recipe

1 lb dry navy beans

4 or 5 pieces kombu

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

6-8 cups water for soaking and

6-8 cups water for cooking (Pay attention to your pressure cooker levels if using one)

1 can tomato paste

~1/4 cup Earth Balance

1 large onion chopped

4-5 celery stalks chopped

4-6 cloves garlic minced

3 carrots chopped

1 green pepper chopped

3 bay leaves

1 Tbsp sugar

~1 tsp each (marjoram, basil, cumin, smoked paprika, rubbed sage)*

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional, I just love it and the vitamin boost is great)

fresh ground pepper to taste

sea salt to taste (I usually start at about a tablespoon, though)

*feel free to play with your seasonings, these are just the ones I love, and they seem to work together well.

Sort and soak your beans overnight in about 6 cups of water and add 2 of the pieces of kombu. After beans have soaked, drain them, rinse them and then add them to your pot or pressure cooker, discard the first two pieces of kombu and add the next two pieces to your pot. Add your 6-8 cups of water and the olive oil (Do Not Add Salt now). Bring to a slow rolling boil for a few minutes and skim off any foam that rises. Once you have skimmed it clean then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover or pressurize. If using a pressure cooker, you want the pressure gauge to get to a gentle rock and keep it there for about 35-40 minutes. If you like your beans pulverized and creamy like me for this recipe, then keep the pressure going for another 15 min. or so. If you are using a regular stock pot, that's fine, you may need to cook the beans covered for about 1 1/2 hours, keep checking them for desired tenderness.

Add all the rest of the ingredients, be sure to stir until the tomato paste is dissolved (leave in or take out the kombu, your call) and then continue to simmer for about 20 min. If you are using a pressure cooker, add the ingredients, stir until tomato paste is dissolved, then bring the pressure back up just until the gauge is gently rocking and then remove it from the heat and let the pressure come down naturally. (It may take about 15 to 20 min.) Enjoy.

Beans soaking with kombu pieces

Pressure cooker at work, I wish I could capture the magic :)

After bringing down the pressure and adding the other ingredients.

A close up for good measure.

The finished product, I hope you try it out!

-Ty

Vegan Mo Fo Virgin

Okay, so today is the first day of the fifth annual Vegan Month of Food (Vegan Mo Fo) and I am excited to participate this year. I wouldn't call myself an avid blogger by any means. I could read all my posts from the last two years in just a couple of minutes. However, I have always been intrigued by blogging and I absolutely love vegan food and cooking, so this is a perfect storm for me, if you will. My only follower right now is my sister, who I love, but maybe others will find something interesting in what I have to say and what I cook up and join in, at least for this month.



Soap box moment: veganism is the best decision you can make for your health, your animal neighbors, and your planet. If you can't commit forever, try to commit this month, or a week this month or every Tuesday this month, any commitment is a step in the right direction and you might find it to be easier and much yummier than you think. (and, Scene)



There are so many wonderful people participating in the Mo Fo madness, check out the blogger list to see who and link up to what they are cooking up.



I personally, don't have a theme yet for my month, but I am committed to sharing my great eats, my family's acceptance (or denial) of what I bring to the table and my cooking adventures in general. So welcome and let's cook!!

Vegan MoFo

I am really excited to get back to blogging and to try my hand at the wonderful Vegan Month of Food. I really love looking at everyone else's blogs about what they are cooking and eating, so I am going to take my shot at it. Alright, alright, I admit, I don't exactly have the best blogging track record, I tend to start and stop and stop some more, but with a month of food photography, I think I can get myself on the wagon pretty good. Keep me posted on what you think and we will see how it goes.