Yummy food, part two

This was tonight's dinner:

Baby potatoes roasted with a bit of olive oil, garlic, and spices (oregano, basil, and rosemary, I think) - roasted at 425 for about 30 minutes, then at 350ish for another 10-15 after I added the asparagus (brushed with a bit of olive oil, seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper and a bit of rosemary). The potato skins were nicely roasted, and the asparagus was cooked but still had a bit of crunch (not a big fan of over-cooked green veggies).
The tofu was marinated in a mixture of balsamic vinegar and olive oil with a bit of pepper (and maybe some other spices - sorry, I've forgotten already), then pan grilled until done (5 or 10 minutes).

And to finish, more cupcakes!

These were so good (and so cute!) I made them twice in two days, for a birthday party and an Easter dinner. I thought the colours worked well for both (bright spring colours ... and I think they're also the Dora colours). I found some mini cupcake liners when I was in the city last month (already had the mini muffin tins), and thought they'd work well in this case. These are the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, baked for about 18 minutes given the smaller size. The recipe makes two dozen minis, and there's enough batter left over for 2 or 3 fullsized cupcakes. My stove is small/narrow, so I baked those in little ramekens squeezed in beside the muffin pans.
The icing recipe is that for the mint icing of the chocolate mint cupcakes in VCTOTW (minus the mint extract, naturally), which is not quite as rich as the buttercream frosting (which is also delicious, but wasn't quite what I was looking for). It worked well for both spreading and piping the flowers which are just the cutest little things ever!


Lastly, these are the peanut butter cupcakes from VCTOTW, also made as mini cupcakes. Other than the shorter baking time (again, about 18 minutes), no modifications were needed. These were also tasty, and quite a hit with the kids (made these for a Good Friday dinner with friends).

Yummy food

I've been taking pics of various meals and cupcakes over the past couple months, and have finally posted a few of them on flickr.

The soup is the velvety carrot and ginger soup from The Candle Cafe Cookbook, and it was delicious. It's light but filling, and has a great flavour. I had enough for 3 or 4 meals, and brought it for lunch a couple times. The bread is the Honey Whole Wheat recipe from More With Less (I had some honey left that I'd bought a few years ago) and it was okay. I think I baked this one a couple minutes too long as the upper crust was a bit too dark (my bread pans aren't exactly the same size, and the smaller loaf was just a bit too dark). the flavour is fine, but not as good as some of the other recipes in the same book.


I decided to make an Indian meal last weekend (and was watching Supersize Me while cooking - how's that for motivation to make homecooked vegan meals?), and pulled out these recipes. I've made the chapatis before (from More With Less), and they're quick and easy to make, except the dough needs to sit for an hour between kneading and baking (which is fine if you let it do so while making something else). I cook them stovetop, using a cast iron pan.
The curry is from The Angelica Home Kitchen (curried chickpea and vegetable stew). I didn't have a few of the veggies it calls for (zucchini, celery, spinach), so I used a bit more of others (mainly, carrot, potato, and cauliflower) in addition to the chickpeas (cooked instead of from a can, for once). I remember liking this recipe more in the past - maybe it was the substitutions, but it ended up too thin/watery, and I had to reduce the remainder for a while which left the potatoes way too soft. The flavour was also lacking, though I used more spices than were called for, which again might have been because there weren't the other veggies adding flavour. That's what I get for not planning ahead and picking up the necessary ingredients.