Eyeballs, Petrified Pumpkin, and Broken Glass

I find it hard to believe I haven’t made a single post all October. I guess it all started when we didn’t have our pumpkin patch picnic at the pumpkin patch and, instead, had it in my front yard. Wasn’t a good way to start off the Halloween season. 😦 I have made a few things throughout the month, though. And I had my Halloween party this past Saturday. I’m hoping to make up for lost Halloween food time this weekend, and extending it into next week for Day of the Dead.

Foods I’m planning on making before the Halloween season is over:

– Caramel apples
– Tofu tombstones with smashed spirits and graveyard gravy + “rotten” roasted vegetables
– Spooky-faced veggie pizzas with an orange pumpkin crust
– Chocolate Chick-o-stick tarts
– Scarecrow toastadas

For Day of the Dead, I’m thinking something along the lines of:

– Mexican-spiced calavera cake (anise seed, orange, and cinnamon)
– Cornbread sugar skulls (with sour cream and green onion decorations)
– Black bean soup with lime, cilantro, and avocado

I hate to admit that I’m ready for a new holiday season to start, but I think I got a little burned out on Halloween early this year. I still can’t wait to have some spooky fun these last few days, though! Here’s a few foods I’ve made this month:

Stuffed Shell Eyeballs

This is just a regular stuffed shell recipe, with olive and roasted red pepper added to make the eyeballs. I used tofu, non-dairy cream cheese, nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper for the filling. Then I just used a jarred pasta sauce. It’s easiest and less messy to put the filling into a plastic bag and cut the corner off to pipe it into the shells. These were covered and baked at 350 degrees until warmed through.

Petrified Pumpkin Enchiladas

I used this recipe for the sauce. For the filling, I used Gardein chick’n and steamed Yukon gold potatoes. Then I just made a face using Toffuti sour cream, olives, and chopped green onion.

Broken Glass Cupcakes

These are red velvet cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I used a store-bought vegan icing and I made a hard, clear candy to break up into glass shards. Then I added some red gel icing to make it look like the cupcakes were bleeding 🙂 If you make these – Don’t add the hard candy until you’re about to serve them. The candy will pick up the moisture from the cupcakes and start to “melt” and deteriorate after a few hours.

Hard Candy:

1 C sugar
3 TBSP light corn syrup
1/3 C water

– Coat a baking sheet (or sheet of aluminum foil) with nonstick spray. Put sugar, corn syrup, and water into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occassionally with a wooden spoon.
– Continue to boil until mixture reaches 310 degrees on a candy thermometer.
– Immediately remove from heat and pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet or aluminum foil, spreading thin with the back of a wooden spoon.
– Allow to cool and harden. Break into glass-like shards.

I hope you’ve all been having a wonderfully spooky October!

– Andrea

Valentine’s Day 2010 – The Dinner!

Valentine I made for Jon out of a Gil Elvgren pin-up.

I hope everyone had a good Valentine’s Day! I know I did. My boyfriend, Jon, came over early and we exchanged cards and gifts. He got me Mary Poppins on DVD, and I got him a Disney gift card for our trip to Walt Disney World in May.

After that, I let him take a nap while I started making our dinner. Jon loves Olive Garden, so I had that in mind when I was coming up with the menu.  Our dinner consisted of the following:

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Vegetables

I used this recipe for Simple Vegan Pesto, and it was so good. This was my first time having and making pesto, and I can tell you it won’t be the last! I used Orecchiette pasta, and I roasted asparagus, red bell peppers, and portabella mushrooms with a little salt and pepper to toss in before serving. SO good!

Minestrone Soup

I used a copycat recipe for Olive Garden’s Minestrone. It was pretty darn close! Plus this is cheaper and makes a whole lot more! The only change I made was only using one can of great northern beans, and maybe a bit more of all the herbs and spices. Jon really liked the soup, so I was happy.

Heart-Shaped Puff Pastry Pinwheels

These are puff pastry sheets filled with spinach, sundried tomatoes, garlic powder, onion powder, brushed with margarine, and spinkled with salt. Ok, actually mine didn’t have salt. But I meant for them to! I rolled up both of the sides to meet in the middle, sliced the sheets, and shaped them like hearts. I thought they were cute 😀

After dinner, we washed the dishes and then went upstairs to watch movies:

We watched Star Wars Episode I:  The Phantom Menace, and some of Dumb and Dumber. It was a fun night!

I have to get ready for work, but I’ll post the rest of the stuff I made tonight!

Up next: Valentine’s Day Sweets!

– Andrea

Pre-Trick-or-Treat Meals

Childhood memories. (I'm the little devil.)

When I was a kid, my mom always made me and my sister awesome dinners before we went trick-or-treating. I can remember tacos and sloppy joes with monster faces most vividly. But, man, I loved pre-trick-or-treat meals. I still do, actually. I stopped going trick-or-treating last year (I figured 20 was a good break-off point, even though I’d still like to go), but it’s still nice to have a comforting Halloween meal to set the mood for the rest of the night.

I know Halloween is months away, but July is generally the time when I start to get really excited about my spooky plans and pumpkin-filled adventures. So I’ve been in the mood for pumpkin. Luckily, canned pumpkin puree is available year-round!

A half-cup serving of canned pumpkin has only 40 calories, a good dose of fiber (5 g), and oh.. 300% of your daily recomended intake of Vitamin A. So it’s a pretty awesome food to give the kiddies.

This past week, I’ve made two pumpkin-filled dishes that I think would be awesome to serve on Halloween night: Pumpkin Pasta with Smoked Apple Sage ‘Sausage’ + Black Bean and Pumpkin Chipotle Burgers.

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chipotle Burgers

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chipotle Burgers

I thought up this recipe while I was going to sleep last night. It sounded awesome in my head, so I decided to try it today. Yum, yum! I have a tasty mind. Oh, and you might want to flour your hands when you’re forming the patties. It’s less sticky that way 😀

For the Burgers:
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 C canned pumpkin puree
2-3 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, minced
1/4 C + 2-3 TBSP flour
1/2 tsp Garlic powder
1/4 tsp Onion Powder
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil
Four hamburger buns

For the Toppings:
4 TBSP Vegenaise (or other vegan mayo)
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, minced
Lettuce, if desired

Mash the black beans just until there are no whole beans left. Mix in the other ingredients and divide the mixture into four even balls. Heat up a large skillet over medium-high with enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the pan (about 3-4 TBSP). Flatten each ball of the bean mixture into four round patties, about 1/2-inch thick. Cook the patties on each side for about 2-3 minutes, or until brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels.

Mix together the Vegenaise and chipotle chili. Spread onto both the top and bottom of the hamburger buns. Place a burger patty onto each bun. Top with lettuce, if desired.

Pumpkin Pasta with Apple-Sage 'Sausage'

 Pumpkin Pasta with Apple-Sage ‘Sausage’

This is a dish I saw on a Halloween episode of 30 Minute Meals. I found the recipe on the Food Network website and decided to try it out. The recipe calls for sweet Italian sausage, but I found some Smoked Apple Sage ‘Sausage’ at Whole Foods and I thought it would go well with the recipe.

Smoked Apple Sage Grain Meat Sausage

At $5.99, this was the most expensive ingredient for the pasta. Luckily, everthing else is relatively cheap!

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon
1 pound bulk sweet Italian sausage (I used the Field Roast Grain Meat Sausage)
4 cloves garlic, cracked and chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
4 to 6 sprigs sage leaves, cut into chiffonade, about 2 tablespoons
1 cup dry white wine (I used vinegar and vegetable stock)
1 cup chicken stock (I used veg. stock, although no-chicken broth would be awesome)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup (3 turns around the pan) heavy cream (soymilk with a TBSP margarine)
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, ground or freshly grated
Coarse salt and black pepper
1 pound penne rigate, cooked to al dente
Romano or Parmigiano, for grating (I just sprinkled in some nutritional yeast)

Heat a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and brown the sausage in it. Transfer sausage to paper towel lined plate. Drain fat from skillet and return pan to the stove. Add the remaining tablespoon oil, and then the garlic and onion. Saute 3 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender.

Add bay leaf, sage, and wine to the pan. Reduce wine by half, about 2 minutes. Add stock and pumpkin and stir to combine, stirring sauce until it comes to a bubble. Return sausage to pan, reduce heat, and stir in cream. Season the sauce with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer mixture 5 to 10 minutes to thicken sauce.

Return drained pasta to the pot you cooked it in. Remove the bay leaf from sauce and pour the sausage pumpkin sauce over pasta. Combine sauce and pasta and toss over low heat for 1 minute. Garnish the pasta with lots of shaved cheese and sage leaves.

Ta-da! Halloween in July!

Until next time – Happy Holidays!

– Andrea