Party food, tester style

More brunch testing deliciousness. I made the tempeh puffs this morning, along with another batch of bagels to bring to work. I tried to multi-task (difficult in a kitchen with zero counter space) as best I could, and wound up making the gravy and then taking a shower - forgetting that the bagels were still in the oven. At least one recipe (well, two if you count the gravy) came out right.

Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs with Navy Bean Gravy





Creamy Avocado Potato Salad



The first was a store bought puff pastry with a tempeh sausage crumble on top. The salad was a simple guacamole based potato salad. Of course, they had the Isa touch. You have to buy the book.

Bagels!

Yesterday we had a meeting at work which included breakfast. I enjoyed some OJ, chocolate Silk, and a Silk blueberry yogurt, and a plain Panera bagel. I dug through the box to find it. Of course, I come home to find out that they include DATEM and L-cysteine, which I'd just prefer to avoid because I'm not about to call up Panera HQ and demand the source of said additives.

This just further encouraged me to tackle Isa's bagel recipe that's being tested for the new cookbook. All I have to say is, if you've avoided making your own because they seemed like a lot of work, rest assured: they are NOT! They take a long time, what with the rising and preheating and bringing water to a boil (doesn't it bug when Europeans say "bring to the boil"?), but the rest of it is just fun. Especially putting on fun bagel-shop toppings:

Poppy seed:


Rosemary:


Red onion:


Garlic:


YUM.

In other news, Megan's got high speed now. After a month of severe pennilessness, chest colds, allergies, and just plain laziness, I got on the phone and canceled my dial up internet, AT&T (bastards), and Callwave. I've eliminated a few unnecessary bills, and added on DSL. Look forward to more regular posts.

Okey dokey, artichokey

This is a brunch item that I tested this morning. It was supposed to be Simple Stuffed Artichokes with Ginger and Chervil, but I couldn't find chervil. I used parsley, instead. I feel sort of pissed off about that; I plan to retry this later in the week once I find some damned chervil. I still have one more artichoke. I didn't buy the four that the recipe called for because the damn things were $5.99 each! I blame Bush.



My mom was always into fresh herbs, although I never saw any little pots on the windowsill. Then I remembered that we always had cats, so it wasn't a good idea to have tasty green things around that made for green puke. This would be a horrible idea for me, since this guy:



would not only mow down anything I planted, but he'd knock the pots on the floor afterward. I'm not that stupid.

Zucchini Spelt Muffins

I'm not posting the recipe for these, since it's not mine. These are from the forthcoming "Crack of Noon" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

These were the most delicious zucchini baked good I've ever had. I knew it could be done: zucchini bread that doesn't taste like, well, zucchini. But I feel all healthy and stuff. One thing I regret was not making these the night before instead of right before work. I didn't have enough time to cool them properly, so a few of them fell. They were still good, though.