In general, I’m fairly anti-fake meat.  I don’t mind the occasional tofu or tempeh, and I like making my own veggie/bean burgers, but I try to avoid premade veggie burgers, chick’n or animal-free sausages.  But this recipe doesn’t contain anything particularly strange; the only ingredient I didn’t have in my pantry already was vital wheat gluten. 

Assembly of these sausages was incredibly simple.  Basically you mash a cup of beans, add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.  Isa recommends combining the ingredients in using the order listed, but once I added the vital wheat gluten (ingredient # 5), the mixture became sticky, thick and hard to stir (kind of like meat!)  I’m no expert, but it seems to me that you could blend all the spices together, stir them into the liquids and add the vital wheat gluten last in order to have a more even mixture.  After the mixture is made, you divide it into 4 parts and wrap each part in a square of foil, “like a tootsie roll”.

The steaming made me a bit nervous.  The most steaming I’d ever done is a handful of vegetables for a few minutes.  I wasn’t sure my pot wouldn’t run out of water during the 40 minute steaming time.  Also, apparently my steamer basket is sort of on its last legs.  But there was plenty of water still in the pot when time was up.

This recipe is extremely simple variation on seitan (which I’ve only had once, about a year ago).  I think it would be really neat to adjust the flavorings.  Perhaps create breakfast sausage?   The only downside was that the recipe used almost the entire 10 ounce box of vital wheat gluten which, at $4.39 was still much cheaper than pork sausage, but is slightly more cost prohibitive than a can of beans.  I suspect I may be able to find vital wheat gluten for less than my local co-op sells it for; I’ll be keeping my eyes open.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, just as the recipe had promised, the steaming shaped the sausages into tubes that actually did look like sausage.  The flavor was pretty close to a regular sausage, although the texture was different enough from meat to make it clear that it wasn’t.  Still, they were pretty delicious and I’ll probably make them again in the future.  And then we served the sausage with eggs…which I only realized was a contradiction as I cooked them.  But that’s just the way things work around here.

My recent focus on whole grains has made me extra aware of them around the web:

Chow has a list of 25 tasty ways to eat more whole grains.

General Mills has a Whole Grain Nation website that they’re using to promote their whole grain products.  It’s certainly an interesting marketing move, though I hope it doesn’t make consumers think that Lucky Charms are nutritious.

Although those same lines, Huffington Post pointed out that “made with whole grains” is a phrase that means nothing on food labels, just like “natural”.

I still haven’t done much with quinoa, but this recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad on Closet Cooking sounds pretty tasty.  Similarly, Serious Eats has a Farro and Roasted Pepper Salad.

This guide to old world whole grains from The Wall Street Journal is really interesting.  I’ve had to look up several of the grains on the Whole Grain Council’s calendar, but  this list includes freekeh, which I’ve never heard of at all.(via The Kitchn)

Evan lists whole grains as one of his top 3 healthy foods for college cooking on Wannabe Chef.

Over on Zester Daily, Maria Speck encourages readers to serve and eat whole grains because they’re delicious, not because they’re “healthy”. 

According to my receipt, I saved 43% on groceries today.  Granted, I spent more than usual in order to do so, but the supermarket was running really excellent sales.  Also, it’s generally a bad choice to go food shopping on the Saturday afternoon before the Super Bowl.

When I went to our local food co-op to buy the vital wheat gluten to make vegan sausages the other day, I had to ask where it was.  Not because it was hard to find, but because every time I go I fail at finding something obvious.  Last time I was at the store I  it was hazelnuts.  (More about that vegan sausage on Monday!)

I need to come up with a good meal for Valentine’s Day.  Or at least a good dessert.  For a night when I have a meeting after school and work the next morning.  Suggestions?

Recently the amount of loose tea we’ve been purchasing and using has increased and I’m not sure what I’m going to do without my tea infusers.  I purchased a package of tea filters, largely for my upcoming cookie swap, but I feel like they’re sort of wasteful and wouldn’t last us very long (like, a month or so).

I emailed the company that manufactured them and they responded with the item numbers of 2 different, but similar, items that are still available on Amazon, but I haven’t been able to find anything close.  So I expanded my search even further.

Here are the current options in the running:

Tovolo Tea Infuser, $12.95 on Amazon

Jokari 229477 Total Tea Infuser, $11.14 on Amazon

Bodum Tastea Stainless Steel Tea Egg Infuser with Silicone Sleeve, $17.05 on Amazon

Rösle 95158 Tea Strainer, Fine Mesh, $18.95 on Amazon

Kitchen Supply Stainless Steel Mesh Tea Ball Infuser , $6.95 on Amazon

Suggestions?  I need an infuser that’s mesh or has really fine holes because some of our loose tea is tiny. 

Regardless of the weather outside, it’s still winter CSA season.

January 13th pick up:

acorn squash, butternut squash, kale, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, garlic, onions, kohlrabi, rutabagas, spinach, eggs

January 28th pick up:

onions, garlic, butternut squash, potatoes, carrots, spinach, rutabagas, kohlrabi, eggs.
Special thanks to our friends for picking up our share this weekend when we were out of town—with biweekly pick ups it’s really depressing if you miss one.  2 weeks is a long time to go without any produce.

Apparently I need to stop arranging my vegetables in almost identical configurations every pick up. Wow.

This month I cooked a lot of the usual stand-bys: soups, curries, roasted vegetables, etc.  We made use of the cabbage by trying out Slow Roasted Salmon with Cabbage, Bacon and Dill from Serious Eats.  The cabbage slaw was pretty good, though a little greasy.  I cooked the salmon at a slightly higher heat for the second half of the cooking time because slow roasted salmon always comes out cold for me.  As a result, it turned out hot and delicious.

I only made half the recipe, so I used some of the leftover cabbage to make Mark Bittman’s Green Tea Broth with Udon Noodles (although I used soba noodles). I had high hopes for the recipe, but it didn’t taste like much. A drizzle of sesame oil helped, but it still needs some tweaking.

Another soup I made this month was Butternut Bisque, which I’d seen on Huffington Post.  The first couple servings were so-so, but the texture wasn’t where I wanted it after using my immersion blender .  Brian blended the remaining soup (this recipe makes around 8 servings) in our real blender and the soup became creamy and smooth.  Overall, not a life changing soup—I have more butternut soup recipes than anyone could ever need and this wasn’t my favorite—but certainly enjoyable.

Here’s to less busyness (like that’ll happen!) and more interesting recipes in February!

I’ve had this Pinterest post in the works for a while, as it seemed like everyone else is writing them.  I’m certainly not as into pinning as some people; I’m not that crafty and I try to save food links I like to Evernote.  Still, every once in a while it sucks me in and I pin a whole bunch of things.  I recently pinned my 200th item and decided that this post could wait no longer.

Without further ado, some of my favorite pins:

Source: marthastewart.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: thesmithnest.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: urbannestblog.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: fishingboatproceeds.tumblr.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: teacherfeature.tumblr.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: minimozblog.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: takepart.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Emily on Pinterest

Finally, the most interesting Pinterest tip I’ve seen yet:  If you visit http://pinterest.com/source/the address of any site, you can see all the pins from that site.  So, if you enter http://pinterest.com/source/ikea.com, you see all the pins from IKEA.  It was really neat to see what was getting pinned from my site.

Feel free to follow me on Pinterest!

I was really glad when I saw that January’s grain was oats.  I’m familiar with oats.  I like oats.  I already had oats in my pantry.  Before long, however, I was inundated with ideas.  There’s an overwhelming number of things that can be made with oats.  A quick search of my Evernote account yields 67 results.

The first, obvious, use for oats was oatmeal, but I’m not really going to spend much time on that.  It’s warm, it’s delicious, it makes a great breakfast (I prefer mine with cranberries and walnuts.)  I think that’s all I really need to say, though Holly just posted her 10 top bowls of oatmeal, if you need more ideas.

The next natural progression was granola bars.  I intended to test drive several different recipes for this post, but for whatever reason, the past couple weeks have been sort of nuts.  I did manage to make a batch of bars using this recipe from Good Housekeeping.  I adapted them and used my favorite egg substitute instead of eggs, because I think putting eggs in granola bars is strange.  I like the recipe because it’s fairly low in sugar and the ingredients list is short.  The resulting granola bars were a little crumbly, but delicious and a perfect on-the-go breakfast. 

This month’s challenge seemed like the perfect time to try out the oat bread recipe I’d been putting off.  Like most bread recipes, it took several hours to complete the loaf, but most of that time was unattended.  Unable to find oat flour, I ground some oats in my mini-blender and they worked perfectly fine.  I was thrilled with the way the final product looked and even happier with the taste.  Given the relatively low effort required and the great taste, I’ve already made plans to make this one again.

Early in my ponderings about how to best utilize oats, veggie burgers came to mind.  Obviously, oats aren’t the main ingredient, but a lot of the recipes I have contain them.  I decided to make a  really simple burger without a recipe and they turned out surprisingly well, given my history of homemade burger failure.  Brian said they were the best burgers I’ve made so far, so I guess this one’s a keeper!

February’s grain is barley and I’ve already got some ideas in mind.  Stay tuned!

It’s probably just me, but I thought these biscuits were super cute and fun.  Also, it seemed like they rose more and were extra crispy.  All in my head?  Maybe, but like of childhood conversations about which shapes of pasta tasted the best, I became an instant fan of star biscuits and I think they are going to remain in my repertoire for a while.  They make me feel impressive without any actual extra work.

If you’re interested, my current go-to biscuit recipe is from Rachel Wilkerson’s website.  The original post is for biscuits and gravy with sausage, but it turns out that the biscuits are just as excellent on their own and super easy to make as a side for soups, salads or whatever needs a flakey, buttery biscuit. 

Some of my tried and true favorites:

• Manhattan Clam Chowder
• Jambalaya-Style Rice with Shrimp
• Oven Fried Fish Sticks
• Baked Panko Breaded Haddock
• Champagne Shrimp Pizza

New interesting recipes that recently came my way:

Mustard-Roasted Fish (Serious Eats)

Five Ideas for Roasted Fish in Fewer than 30 Minutes (The Kitchn)

Blackened Catfish Fajitas (The Kitchn)

Middle Eastern Shrimp (Huffington Post)

Creamy Honey Mustard For Seafood (Serious Eats)

Crab and Blackberry Guacamole  (Healthy Delicious)

Cod With Sesame and Ginger (NY Times)

Crunchy Coconut Shrimp Recipe (Food Republic)

Hawaiian Ahi Poke (Tasty Kitchen)

Brined Shrimp and Chinese Eggs with Shrimp and Scallions (Home Cooking in Montana)

Cilantro and Lime Fish Tacos (Closet Cooking)

So when my students asked how my 3 day weekend was, I told them it was really good.  When they asked if I did anything fun, I didn’t really bother to go into details.  I’m pretty sure I never could have explained to them why an entire day spent  baking Ree Drummond’s Cinnamon Rolls with people I’d never met before was so much fun.

Even though I hadn’t met Nikki in person, she’d been trying to arrange a meeting of some of Western Massachusetts bloggers for some time.  So when she forwarded an email from Laura about a “cinnamon roll extravaganza”, I couldn’t resist.

You are receiving this email because A. you are incredibly creative and talented, and B. you portray some sort of love of food on your blog/website. My friend Lauren and I would like to organize a get-together to network, bake, create, and get to know all of you in the Western Mass blogosphere (and then share the pictures with each other so we can all blog about it :D ).

Of course, I also wasn’t going to drive nearly 2 hours each way by myself (“Western Massachusetts” is sort of a general term which can encompass all of Berkshire County and the Pioneer Valley), so I invited Cynthia and she drove.  It was a really fabulous day, but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.