Eggless donuts, eh eh eh eh

After many (MANY) days of pondering.... pondering...about doughnuts and which one exactly would make me the most happiest human on earth, I tried a recipe. And yeah they had to be eggless, as mum is anti-egg. She is so my weight gain preventer; I tempt her tiny body with fatty, sugar filled foods I experiment with and hope she bites. :)

So, first of all, these did not come up the texture of Dunkin doughnuts. And don't kill me for this but the one time I tried a krispy kreme, it was the opposite of "sheer heaven". These were more cake-like, and non spongy. I suppose the recipe creator could have been going for cake doughnuts?

1 c flour, 1/2 c sugar, 1 1/2 ts baking powder, 1/2 ts nutmeg, pinch nutmeg

mix those and in a seperate saucepan warm up 1.2 c milk, 1/2 ts vanilla, 1/2 ts vinegar, 1 energy egg, 4 tb butter

Mix until just combined and bake for 12 min at 350F.

Now mine must have baked for half an hour, plus not having a mini doughnut pan, I used souffle cups, 6 of them. Afterwards, for the topper, I added a mix of choco chips and heavy cream. No measurements- just jumped it. So, these thingies not being fried and having no eggs for those allergic to them, seem to be a nice breakfast or snack. They taste the best the day of, and lose moisture bit by bit the days afterwards. But don't worry you should gobble them up anyway.

P.S I shall post again when I make a yeasty doughnut I am hoping will have more crumb 'spring', than his one.

Chicki Pot Pie Chiki Pot Pie!

What's warm and gooey and spicy and flaky all over? Why it's chiki pot pie! ("No, duh." you say having read the title already.). Well anyway yesterday night I wanted something warm and gooey to ward off the bitter chill that permeated my bones, and since I do not eat meat (and yet still crave it) I realized a "meaty" substitute could be this dish. What I planned and what I ende with were a bit different. I had planned to maybe put in some mock chicken or tofu flavored with chicken. I did neither and simply used chicken soup flavor.
I de-frozified some mixed veggies in the microwave (zappity zap), then sauted them with onions and potatoes. To this I simply added celery soup or mushroom (whatever your little heart desires) added flaked peppers (yes there is more than one kind), salt, any other seasoning and herbs and spices you like. It's fine, what you add in, this ain't no gourmet kitchen. As long as you like the flavor, I'm just giving you the basic idea. I then added cold water to my betty crocker pie dough mix, rolled and layed out (cake pan, casserole dish, muffin tin!), filled, and baked at 350F. Yummy Yummy!

Whole Wheat Ravioli with Pesto Cream

So I have been feeling guilty about eating too much white pasta. We all know (or do we?::eyes person in front of her in a sizing up sort of way) that white pasta is just a bunch of crap. The carbs just turn to sugar, you don't get your fiber and other vital nutrients that wheat can give you just are not there.

Whole wheat just seems to have more taste to it?! The question mark is there because I wonder why most breads on the shelves are white, most breads, most pastas. After you have been feasting on wheat thingies, white just tastes plain BLAND.
Yesterday, I made whole wheat ravioli, mmmm mmmmm mmmm mmmm. Okay at first I was scared for wasting 2 hours of my life making these 'horrible wheat ravioli'. Explain:: Though I like whole wheat stuffs, homemade wheat pasta just didn't turn out for me. Until now!

2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1/4 ts salt
and as many TB of h20 as you need to form a stiff dough
Knead for a while and let rest (a 30min to an hour or more)
Then just roll (or use had cranker) until thin enough for your personal taste buds, and fill your filling.
My filling was ricotta, cheddar (a sprinkle), pepper Jack (a sprinkle), and mozzarella (sprinkle), some fresh oregano, salt, olives, black pepper and red powdered pepper

NOW THE SAUCE!!!! What made the pasta!
I made a roux (of butter and flour). Unfortunately, in my hurry (as usual), I undercooked the flour (and yes you can taste it), so I was forced to cook the sauce itself for a bit.
I added a cube of frozen pesto, added some leftover heavy cream and some milk until the consistency was good enough for me, personally. Make sure you mix constantly. Or use a hand blender, what's it called immersion nowadays? Added more pesto, salt, black pepper, basil, and whatever you want.

I froze the leftover ravioli, hope that is how you do it, raw, cause that's how I did.

Last month I had made a mushroom ravioli with mushroom sauce, aaaaaaaaa (that like when you see angels on tv and the background music goes aaaaaaa).

Chicken Paprikash---without the Chickies

So I finally drove directly into a Chinese supermarket. I was quite upset when my last one pooped out and the next closest one was, alas, not close at all. Longness made short, lo and behold, one right next to a Walmart.
Inside this beautiful place were like 5 types of bok choy, a row (a whole freaking ROW) of dried mushrooms, and more types of soy sauce than I've ever seen before. Well again longness made short, I bought me a bit of vegetarian chicken. Ever since my vegetarianism, some 20 years ago, I've craved chicken like no tommorow (amongst other things).

Chicken Paprikash, I looked up a few recipes and this is what I did.

Some oil and butter, with some garlic and tomatoes until the tomatoes were saucelike.

Added onions, cooked until soft. sprinked some flour and then veggie broth to form sauce.

Added bell peppers, faux chickies (preshredded-all I could find, no juicy legs to bite into....).

Salt, paprika, black pepper, 'chicken' soup flavor salt, basil fresh and dried.

You're supposed to add sour cream too, but I tasted it and it was okay, maybe when I use big meaty chunks of frozen tofu with this recipe, I'll try sour cream. Mock chicken is a bit softer than real.

Well made a pack of wild rice to go with it and hopefully it will all be good! Oh and "garnish" with green scallions. "Garnish"=liberal dose.

Chive Farfalle with Roasted Mushrooms

Okay, so it was either chives blended into a yummy sauce OR grass with lots of lemon. It's not my fault-- my garden beds are weedy. (Okay, so THAT would be my fault, lazy bum). Anyway, this is how I made it.

Roasting mushrooms (first time and not the last). Cut into halved, sprayed with oil, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven for 5 minutes or so at 450 F.

Blended half a cup of chopped chives, salt, oil (the nice fruity green stuff--olive), and pepper (crushed or black). If you don't have enough chives (like me), you can add some basil & a BIT of oregano (both freshy fresh). Add lemon juice to taste, and blend until creamy. I also wanted to use less oil so I added some water as an alternate, still good.

Poured it over Farfalle, added a bit of Asiago cheese and roasted mushrooms on the side. YUMMO (to take a word from Rachel Ray). This recipe is obviously not mine, got it from a mag and messed it up a bit! :)

I can't make jello

I'm guessing jello is the dessert that even people who cannot cook bring to dinner parties and family reunions, just so they feel like they brought something. Something so easy they have nothing to do but boil water and stir. Put it into a mold to look like a pretty gem, something, anything to take away from the fact that you made jello while your sister in law made a croquembouche.

I made a fruit jello, the EASIEST recipe out there. I mixed a can of pineapple bits with a pack of jello, just like the recipe instructed to all the little kindergarten cooks out there. I proudly flipped over my mold, in the presence of my sister, exclaiming how "yummy" it was going to taste. I heard this little 'glip' and the entire 'jello' poured out like melted jam. Life sucks.

Cauliflower Soup.....really

So I tried to make a creamy soup out of Cauliflower, who knew it to be possible, most certainly not I. I came upon this recipe in a food blog, 101 cookbooks, I think it was. Of course being me, described as a donkey by my father (I've been told I do things opposite of what I've been told, supposedly like donkey??), I can't follow recipes. It makes me cringe to go 'by the book', makes me feel rigid like some uptight school marm in neck high, black dresses with 50psi corsets. MAybe it is my brain, I think I can do things better---I can't. But I keep trying! Again like a donkey. Whatever.

Cauliflower soup --didn't taste bad actually, bit thick I made it though.

Splashes of olive oil, with minced garlic cloves (5), dried rosemary, crushed pepper, 1/2 ts cumin, and a spike of Chinese hot garlic/pepper sauce, kept over a warm stove for 10 min while I....

Chopped 1/2 cauliflower, 1 small potato, 2 stalks of celery, 1/2 onion, 1/2 cup bell peppers red and green.


I added the onions, let sautee for 10 minutes, then added everything else.

Added 1 veggie boulean cube with 2 cups water, let cook till soft. Cool, and blended. Then as needed kosher salt+lemon salt+black pepper.

People add cheddar and etc cheeses as well. I did'nt, but some cheddar mightv'e been good.

Nice spicy, healthy soup. Added coriander leaves as garnish. People add milk, but it was quite creamy in itself. I think I could have added the whole onion, and double the celery for more flavor. Keeping the salt at the end helped me not oversalt it.