Point taken.

The only smart thing I did today was prepare the filling for these empanadas before leaving for work. Otherwise, I'd still be in the kitchen, and this blog entry would be late. I'd also be STARVING, because I spent my entire lunch break on the phone with T-Mobile, crying over the latest piece of shit phone they've sent me. This time, the phone won't charge. I was lucky enough to find my old flip phone and charger so I can at least talk and text until my new piece of shit arrives tomorrow. I think the woman I spoke with at tech support told me three times that I'll have to cough up $55 if the phone is actually damaged; as in, I broke it. I know, I know. I hate this shit. I want Credo to get some decent droids (or iPhones), and then I'm dropping this Motorola Charm piece of junk off the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.

Anyway, the empanadas turned out great. Thanks in part to this handy little gadget that I got for $1 about ten years ago, but finally used today:



As for the filling, I think the traditional Spanish recipe calls for beef, hard boiled eggs, and raisins. Oh, and sofrito, of course. I used Trader Joe's soy chorizo, potatoes, and dried cherries. I made a simple tomato sauce with minced onion, garlic, green pepper, white wine, and paprika. Instead of making dough, I used puff pastry. Baked at 400° until golden brown (about 15 minutes), and I had time to blog!

Velkommen!

Photo credit: Star Tribune

King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway are in town this week. I had planned to make something different this morning, but when I heard this was their last day in town, I figured I should give the Motherland some props and do up some lefse.

Of course, "motherland" would be a misnomer for me, since my mother is English and Irish, and my grandpa was the Norwegian ingredient, but my Grandma Ruth was one hell of a lefse factory, despite being German.


Here she is with my dad. AWWW!

I wish I'd spent more of my childhood learning kitchen tricks from my grandma. By the time I'd wrestled much alone time with her, she'd already gone through my numerous cousins and was becoming a "back of the box" chef. I remember telling her how much I looooved her pineapple upside-down cake, only to have her tell me that it was actually Barbara Mandrell's recipe, and she got it off the back of a box of cake mix.



But there was one thing she did from scratch that I looked forward to every year. Lefse. Perfectly thin, perfectly cooked, and delicious with butter and sugar. I knew there was no way I could make my lefse as perfect without years of experience, but I will tell you, it tastes even better with Earth Balance and organic raw sugar sprinkled on it.

This recipe makes a pretty good pile of lefse, but if you want to bring a ton to a family party, I'd double or triple it.

Vegan Norwegian Lefse
Makes about a dozen pancake-sized lefse

4 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 Tbsp margarine
2 1/2 Tbsp soy creamer or plain soymilk
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp sugar
1 cup all purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling

Cover potatoes in cold water and cook until fork-tender. Push through a ricer, or mash gently with one of these. A regular masher can make the potatoes too gummy. Mix in the margarine, creamer, salt, and sugar. Refrigerate until room temperature. Once cooled, add flour and mix in with your hands (wash them, you dirty punk!). Tear off a golf ball-sized chunk, and roll it into a soft ball in floured hands. On a floured surface, with a floured rolling pin, roll that sucker out as flat as you can (feel free to take bits out of the dough bowl for spackling any tears). Cook lefse on a HOT cast iron griddle or crepe pan for like, 15-25 seconds or until it's lightly browned. You'll get the hang of it. Turn, cook an additional 10 seconds (really), and move to a plate. Keep the stack warm with a towel until you're finished.

Lefse can be served rolled up with vegetables, Tofutti cream cheese, or whatever you like. I still prefer them the traditional way: buttery and sweet.

Devil's Night

Today at my job, my boss carved our pumpkin to enter in the district carving contest. Instead of my suggestion that we do a Barack O'Lantern, we settled on something work related. I know, right? LAME.

Anyway, I was given the guts to de-seed. I spent my afternoon in the drive-up with slimy hands, removing seeds from stringy pumpkin guts, and helping customers. One thing I did notice: pumpkin makes your hands feel really smooth. I think I might make a face mask out of that stuff someday. Someday when I don't hate pumpkins anymore.




Tonight, between fighting with my family about politics via email and talking on the phone, I whipped up a batch of tamari-chile oil roasted pumpkin seeds (firey!), and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The seeds were mine, and the cookie recipe is from the intertubes. I think I will doctor it up so the cookies are less cakey and more chewy and gooey next time. How come my cookies always come out cakey? Is it the baking powder? And since I made two things today, can I skip tomorrow? No? I hate you.



Tomorrow is the last day of MoFo. Will I make it? Stay tuned.

It's only Wednesday

Just two more days, I know. But I'm out of ideas, people. Maybe I'll dream about it.

Pumpkin Samosas



The recipe:

Make the ones from VwaV, only take as many shortcuts as possible. Use half potato, half mashed pumpkin. Cheat and use curry powder. Throw out the last 1/4 of the dough because you're sick of rolling it out. Chow down with an ice cold beer.

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.