My Kitchen: Simple, Frugal, Functional

I thought I'd give you all a tour of my kitchen. It's a pretty typical apartment kitchen- not very large, with an open bar to the living room and dining room. But honestly? I prefer this size because I joke that from the center I can "work the room" like I'm in a control center. Two steps in any direction, or a quick turn on my heel, and I can reach my oven/stove/microwave, sink, fridge, or pantry. I can easily clean as I go along, since I'm forced to if I want to maintain order and space availability. There isn't the option of just piling things on an island, or a stretch of counter- it's necessary to rinse, clean, and dishwasher load as I'm cooking, which makes clean up a snap. Usually the only clean up when I'm done cooking is the dinner dishes and whatever pots I used :)

This is the view from the corner of the bar, standing in the living room.

This is the view standing in the entrance of the kitchen. That skinny door is our pantry, and the trash can lives there too.

I've said it before, but I adore my spice rack. It's actually a corner shelf for a bathtub, and it works like a charm. I dislike spice storage systems that require you to use specific bottles that fit into specific holders. I also dislike how small generic spice holders usually are- I think this holds somewhere around 35-40 spice bottles. It was under $20 (far cheaper than any of the dinky wooden spice racks I priced at several stores) and it was easy to bolt to the wall on the side.

I love these canisters. They were purchased piece by piece at 3 different thrift stores, and all together they total less than $15. They are all sturdy ceramic, with good clasps. From left to right I have brown sugar, turbinado (raw) sugar, wheat gluten, baking powder, cornmeal, wheat flour, and sugar. This set up makes baking and cooking so much easier than fussing with bags and jars. On the far right are my two wooden cutting boards- the one on the bottom was my Great Granny's, the small one on top I got from Target. I use the small one for chopping onions and garlic, because even with vinegar rinses the wood can hold on to strong smells so it's just easier to work separately.

This is a close up of the top picture on the back wall. It's actually a gift bag that I purchased for $1. I like how quirky it is. Bobby says it reminds him of Russian religious icons. The frame was given to me.

The picture below it is a postcard I got from PETA, of cows congregating around an angel statue. I purchased the frame for $1, and since it wasn't made to hang up I used a bit of yarn and a tack to hang it.

On top of the fridge are jars of couscous and pasta, as well as any crackers we might have on hand. I've had these baskets for 5 years now, and they were $2 and $4 respectively. Since I'm short, I don't mind blocking the cupboards above the fridge because this is a more practical and accessible storage solution.

The inside of the cupboard to the bottom left of the stove. This is every single pot and pan I own, along with a large bowl in the background and my colander nested inside it. I cook a lot, but I've never needed anything more than these pots. The one on the very top is non-stick, but everything else is stainless steel, purchased secondhand or given to me. Oh, and that white shelf? It's awesome. It keeps me from having to nest every pot and pan into a teetering tower of mess and chaos.

The cupboard to the bottom right of my stove. This is all of my casserole/baking dishes/muffin tins, with the exception of two cookie sheets in another cupboard. Again, another white shelf makes the cupboard far more functional. The two Pyrex dishes on the bottom nesting together get the most use, and it's easy to slide them in and out instead of having to dig them out from under a pile of their friends.

To the right of the stove- all of the cooking knives, olive oil bottle with a drizzle top, and all cooking utensils.

This is the baking/tea cupboard, to the left of the microwave. Food processor and measuring cups/spoons on bottom, various baking items middle (with another handy white shelf), and tins/boxes of tea on top.

This is the view from the back wall of the kitchen, looking out into the dining room. That shelf you see in the background holds cookbooks and 4 mixing bowls nested together. Oh, and we use all cloth dish rags and napkins, which you can see draped over the sink. The yellow is for counters, the blue is for dishes (I like to keep them separate, what can I say :)

So that's it! On a final note, I used to have about double the amount of pots, pans, utensils, and kitchen gadgets that I have now. Then one day I realized how redundant most of them were, culled them out, and ever since I'm pretty much anti-gadget. It makes kitchen organizing so much easier, and it saves a ton of money too. I don't like clutter and superfluous decorations, but I still think that for how streamlined and small our kitchen is (and how little money was spent on it) it's functional without looking too sterile. If there was a window in this kitchen it would be just about perfect :)

My Dinner's Too Currylicious Fo Ya Babe

Sorry kittens, it seems my penchant for punny post titles (and alliteration, apparently) has reached all new lows heights. Also, I've never used strikethrough in a blog until just now. But back to the point of that terrible post title...

You must make this curry. I found the recipe here, on a site I have raved about before when my friend pointed me to it. Her blog is so very much better than mine. I'm making up random stuff in my kitchen and tweaking other people's recipes, but she's whipping up all sorts of original recipes that have never let me down. You can hop over to Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes any time you want something new to cook that will definitely be great.

I've made this curry a few times, and each time I pretty much disregard the spices, for a number of reasons. One, I can't find asafetida, and since she said it's optional, I opted out. Two, I used cumin to taste instead of cumin seeds. Three, Bobby truly despises cilantro (the same thing as coriander, referenced in her recipe) because he is one of those unfortunate people to whom cilantro tastes like soap. I also tend to add other random spices to taste, such as garam masala, turmeric, curry powder, or even cardamom. Other than that I follow her directions exactly and this has become our favorite go to, easy dish. The coconut milk- full fat ya'll, it's good for you and worth the taste- makes it every bit as creamy as traditional cream.

Apologies for the flash, I couldn't find Bobby's (much better) camera and needed to snap a shot and get on with the dinner making

 The recipe specifically calls for fresh tomatoes instead of canned. I've made this with canned and fresh tomatoes, and it's hard for me to tell the difference taste wise, but texture wise I far prefer fresh.

 Hello again, $3 Goodwill saute pan. Onions and cumin look good on you. They smell good, too.

 This is the finished product, simmering on the stove so that all the flavors meld. Forget Glade, or AirWick, or anything else that promises to make your home smell wonderful. Just simmer some curry on the stove and you'll have it covered. The sweet tomato and coconut smells mix with the heady spices and it's amazing.

I usually serve this with a side of plain white rice. Alternatively, you can make cauliflower rice if, like me, rice doesn't exactly get your culinary heart racing. You just wash and chop a head of cauliflower, and then pulse it in a food processor (raw). Once it reaches a consistency/look similar to rice, you can take it out and shake it around a hot pan a bit to soften it and warm it through- feel free to season however you would normally season your rice. Basically what you're looking for is a neutral, chewy, starchy complement to the creamy, layered flavors of the curry, and cauliflower does that job very well. Plus it gets some extra veggies in your day. And a day with extra veggies is usually a pretty good day.

Food Facts FYI: Cauliflower
For 25 calories and 0 grams of fat, one cup of raw cauliflower gives you 77% of your DV of vitamin C and 2% of your DV of calcium and iron. It also has 3 grams of fiber and 2 grams of protein, plus an array of phytochemicals. And if you ever get bored of plain old white cauliflower, you can check out orange or purple varieties :)

Veganomicon Comes Through Again

I've written before about the perfection that is Veganomicon's cauliflower and mushroom pot pie with olive biscuit crust. The other night I had a load of veggies that needed to be used up, but I was also craving something dense and creamy. The pot pie is pretty involved between making the sauce and the biscuit crust from scratch, and I wanted something quick. I decided to make a veggie, whole wheat pasta dish and douse the whole thing in the pot pie sauce. I also wanted to try making it with coconut oil instead of vegan earth balance-  coconut oil is still very high in fat, but at least it's natural.

 I used the same measurements for the gravy, in terms of replacing the vegan butter with coconut oil. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature- and looks a bit like shortening- and melts into a totally clear liquid.

 I didn't change anything else about the sauce prep- here's the wheat flour bubbling into a paste when mixed with the coconut oil...

 and then the almond milk and spices are whisked in.

 I've dumped this over biscuits after crumbling Field Roast sausage into it. Amazing.

 While the gravy making was going on, about 2 cups of veggies- onions, zucchini, squash, carrot, and spinach- were cooking in a bit of olive oil. Whole wheat pasta spirals were boiling too, but let's be honest, boiling pasta doesn't really call out to be photographed.

 I mixed the veggies, sauce, and pasta all together in the gravy making pan. By the way, I *love* this pan. It's deep enough to make sauces and one pot meals, but it's still my go-to "saute something in olive/coconut oil" pan. It's stainless steel, Wolfgang Puck brand, and was $3 at Goodwill.

Dear Goodwill-
Thanks for helping me out in all sorts of kitchen ways. You're a real pal.

As you can see from the above picture and this one, the sauce wasn't really that heavy. Just enough to impart some flavor and coat everything evenly. I really liked this on pasta but I think it would have been improved with some fresh basil and roasted portabella mushrooms. Maybe some pine nuts or toasted walnuts as well. Oh, and I took this picture before I added diced Roma tomatoes. The freshness of the tomatoes was a nice contrast to the density of the pasta and the creaminess of the sauce.

I've said it before and I'll say it again- Veganomicon is a fabulous cookbook and I highly recommend it.

"Chicken" Fried "Steak"

The other night I was planning on using up the last slices of my favorite mock meat- Field Roast brand, Celebration Roast variety. I was going to serve it with homemade vegan gravy, dill carrots, and fresh green beans with lemon dressing. I then thought to myself "self, remember how terrible you were at frying those beet latkes? Let's give frying another try". Thus I found myself making "chicken" fried "steak" two nights ago. And oh good gadzooks, it was fabulous. Considering the fact that I have never chicken fried anything, and I've only fried anything once before- those beet latkes- I was well aware that I could have been ruining dinner, and wasting Field Roast. So I was extra thankful when it turned out.

 You can use Ener-G egg replacer and mix it with almond milk, and if you'd like extra crunch roll it in some crackers/bread crumbs instead of/in addition to  flour. I found the wheat flour I used worked just fine. I seasoned the wet and dry mixture with ground sage/salt/pepper and cayenne. Dipping wet/dry/wet/dry really helps make things extra crispy.

I fried these in coconut oil, not deep fried, just enough to coat the bottom of a pan. After I took out the cutlets I sprinkled flour in the oil, dumped in some milk, and added seasonings to taste- this is just like how my mom makes gravy, but since she's using the drippings from actual meat there is already quite a bit of seasoning and depth of flavor, so you'll have to adjust for that and add more spices. The carrots were just steamed and sprinkled with dill, the green beans were steamed and the whole pot was drizzled with maybe half a teaspoon of lemon goddess dressing. Just enough to coat and impart some flavor, pepper to taste.

I'm going to try marinating portabella mushrooms in a steak marinade, and then frying them like chicken fried steak in the future. But in the far, far distant future, because we usually don't eat fried foods at all, so it will be a while. I'm biased but I think the Field Roast Celebration Roast is probably your best bet for this approach- either that or making your own "wheat meat". My local Whole Foods sells them for $7, but I slice it into ten pieces and it feeds Bobby and I both for 2 meals and one leftover lunch. Fake meats- even all natural ones like Field Roast- are still treats for us because whole, protein rich foods like lentils, beans, and nuts are still cheaper in bulk and we like that they're less processed. When we buy things like Celebration Roast it's more like they are a side dish complement to the vegetables, not vice versa. This gives us some variety but keeps costs down.

Good luck experimenting with vegan chicken fried steak!

Greatest Hits Compilation

This manicotti involves some of my favorite vegan elements- a delicious tofu ricotta and a sauce so creamy you will forget that it doesn't have dairy. I had never made it like this before but I found myself craving pumpkin sage cream sauce and my spinach and ricotta cheese manicotti, so I decided to combine the two.

I sauteed an onion in two cloves of fresh garlic and olive oil, and then added generous handfuls of washed, chopped baby spinach.

Making tofu ricotta is a treat because I try to limit the amount of soy I eat- even in forms like tofu, because that's still heavily processed. I loosely followed the cashew and tofu ricotta recipe from Veganomicon, which in addition to a block of tofu has cashews, garlic, lots of spices, and lemon juice. It is my favorite recipe because the cashews really make things creamy. Tofu on its own kind of just tastes like food processed tofu with a bit of spices thrown in.

After the tofu ricotta was blended, I dumped it in a bowl with the spinach and onion mixture, stirred it all together, and then started my least favorite part of making manicotti- stuffing the manicotti. Boo. Hiss. It stinks and it's messy and you just have to remind yourself it is worth it.

When they were all stuffed (I don't cook them beforehand because they simmer in the sauce and get soft) I smeared the remaining mixture on top and then started throwing together the sauce.

My friend Gordon had posted on FB about making pumpkin sage cream sauce. I adapted the recipe he gave me by nixing the soy cream and adding a can of full fat coconut milk instead. To this I added one cup of canned, pureed pumpkin.

Then I just seasoned to taste with whatever sounded good- ground and rubbed sage, a bit of marjoram, some white pepper, and a bit a cayenne pepper.

I remembered how great pecans taste with creamy, light sauces, so I sauteed some chopped pecans in a pan with a bit of vegan butter, brown sugar, and more sage.

The pecans were sprinkled on top...

and then the sauce was dumped on top of that. I think I cooked this at about 350 for around 45 minutes, spooning the sauce on top periodically so that it didn't dry out.

This doesn't look very appetizing since it is all so very brown, but when you cut it open the tofu ricotta/onion/spinach mixture oozed out and it was amazing. I was very happy that such a thrown together, making it up as I went along meal worked out so well! If you've never tried pumpkin sage cream sauce give it a whirl with the canned coconut milk- it makes it creamy and thick and honestly just the pumpkin and coconut milk taste so good together that you can't go wrong. Just season to taste and pour it over whatever you might be baking. I think this sauce would work really well on baked penne, or as a sauce with some farfalle pasta and veggies.