Monthly Archives: February 2012

Feb29

Rice Milk…Horchata

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Rice Milk…Horchata
Rice Milk…Horchata

I made the almond milk previously so I felt to be fair to non-diary milk everywhere I needed to do the rice milk too…even though I know I’m not a huge fan of rice milk, which is why I decided to make it all into horchata which is just a sweeter version of rice milk with cinnamon in it.  Yum.

Soaking Rice

The recipe I based my experiment on called for long-grain white rice, I had to go buy it since we don’t typically eat white rice these days.  I soaked 1 cup of white rice in a bowl with enough water to cover the rice by 1-2″ and kept it in the fridge for 24 hours.  The water was fairly cloudy from the time I put the rice in. Read the rest of this entry →

Feb28

Citrus Juicing – The Experiment

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Citrus Juicing – The Experiment
Citrus Juicing – The Experiment

Citrus Juicing Implements

In the spirit of my previous post on pressing tofu, I’m doing a study on lemons.  I have three common methods of getting the juice out of a lemon: The Citrus Reamer, The Citrus Press, and The Citrus Juicer.  I purchased three fairly identical looking lemons to see which method is best; best being easiest to use and most effective.

3 Similar Lemons

I’ve use all three methods over the years and I’ve already settled on my favorite, but I am curious to know which is really best.  So, here it goes: Read the rest of this entry →

Feb27

Making Almond Milk

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Making Almond Milk
Making Almond Milk

I do love making delicious food for my family, but I’ve always been one to buy our non-dairy milk at the store.  I would clip coupons and buy whatever soy, almond, or coconut milk that was on sale.  It’s pretty cheap and it never bothered me.  But I was recently looking at the almonds in my cupboard and wondered how one takes almonds and ends up with milk.  I looked it up; there are about a billion recipes posted online and they’re all pretty much the same.  I had all of the ingredients needed: raw almonds and water.

Soaking Almonds

I took 1 cup of raw almonds and soaked them in water; I just put the almonds in a bowl and poured in enough water to cover the almonds plus about 1-2″ more to make sure they were all covered and had enough water to absorb.  I left the bowl of almonds and water in the fridge for 8 hours. Read the rest of this entry →

Feb25

Izakaya Den

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Izakaya Den
Izakaya Den
Izakaya Den
1518 South Pearl St, Denver, CO
303-777-069
Dinner:
Tues – Thurs: 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Fri – Sat: 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Sun: 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Lunch:
Sat – Sun: 11:30AM – 2:30PM
Monday: Closed

 

We frequent this restaurant a lot, at least once a week.  Back in my fish eating days I loved going to Sushi Den, a place that’s now too trendy and overrated for my taste.  There’s ALWAYS a crowd waiting outside, that’s not really for me…unless it’s awesome vegan fare, then I’m more patient about waiting around.  Izakaya Den is owned by the same person and is pretty much just across the street, it’s much mellower and less crowded and I’ve got to assume it’s the same high quality of food since it’s the same owner.

Izakaya Den

Dining Area

The interior is mostly wood with exposed beams overhead, stone flooring, and bamboo partitions make it cozier since it is a large space.  There’s a really cool light sculpture above the bar that changes colors really subtly so you’ll find yourself thinking, “Wait a minute, wasn’t that thing red a few minutes ago?”  Then you’ll have to stare at it for a while just to make sure you’re not losing it. Read the rest of this entry →

Feb23

Draining Tofu – The Experiment

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Draining Tofu – The Experiment
Draining Tofu – The Experiment

I’ve been “draining” tofu for years.  I’ve typically read to pour the water out of the container, wrap the tofu in paper towels or a lint-free towel, and place something heavy on top of it – like a frying pan or something.  This didn’t seem to be the least bit effective to me.   My towel would get wet, but I didn’t imagine it really did much.

THEN one glorious day I read about the TofuXpress.  I pretty much ordered it immediately and couldn’t wait to use it.  The Xpress has a rectangular container, slightly larger than a standard piece of tofu; once the tofu is in place you put the top on, the top consists of a flat piece of plastic that will be pressing down on the tofu with a strong spring for as long as you would like.  I couldn’t believe how much liquid was squeezed from my tofu with this thing.  But I wondered if the visual results were fooling me into believing that it squeezed that much more from my tofu than the old way; with the old way there’s really no visual gratification of results so it could be deceptive. Read the rest of this entry →

Feb21

Sazza Pizza!

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Sazza Pizza!
Sazza Pizza!
Sazza Restaurant
2500 East Orchard Ave
Greenwood Village, CO 80121
Sunday-Thursday 11am-9pm
Friday-Saturday 11am-10pm
303-79-SAZZA (303-797-2992)
 

This pizza is my favorite; all other pizzas are held to this standard and all pale in comparison.  Being a vegan and finding great pizza has been one of my top problem areas.  Cheese is usually the last thing to go when one goes vegan and the same was true for me.  And I happen to know for a fact that their cheesy bread sticks are amazing.

Sazza Menu Board

The Sazza Pizza crew use mostly organic ingredients sourced from mostly local growers and their take out containers are all biodegradable/compostable.  The glasses in their restaurant are made from old wine bottles and they recycle almost everything from their kitchen.  I LOVE that.  Sazza, if you’re reading this, I love you. <3 Read the rest of this entry →

Feb20

Mercury Cafe

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Mercury Cafe
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St
Denver, CO
303-294-9281 for info
303-294-9258 for reservations
 
 

I’ve known of this restaurant for ages and have never eaten here until today.  I’d been here a long time ago to attend an event in the upstairs community center room, but hadn’t stopped to eat…silly me, I’ve been missing out all this time!

The Mercury Cafe opened at this location on Halloween Day, way back in 1990.  This location is far more than just a restaurant: it’s a community center, a gathering place, a music and poetry venue, and much more.  I just may be going back to take some belly dancing classes too!  Check out their website for a monthly calendar, most things are free, but there is a small fee for a few events.

Today we drove up to The Mercury, there is a pay parking lot right next to the building, on the weekend it’s just $2 for the whole day so it’s not much to complain about.  There is free parking on the streets too if you can find it.

Mercury Cafe Dining Area

We were seated immediately, the restaurant wasn’t busy at all for being a Saturday around 1pm.  I love that.  We were seated in a booth by the empty bar.  The restaurant is decorated in a really unique and warm way.  There are a lot of red and white Christmas-style lights draped from the ceiling and lots of mirrors on the walls reflecting things around.  Several of the walls are painted red with large red roses.  And for our auditory pleasure there was a flamenco guitar player playing in the dining area.  For some reason there are a lot of pumpkins around the dining area, that’s not odd if it’s October, but this is the middle of February!  In general, the place it totally eccentric, warm, and friendly. Read the rest of this entry →

Feb19

Delicious Sesame Sauce

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Delicious Sesame Sauce
Delicious Sesame Sauce

I’ve been making this sauce for many, many years; it’s really one of my absolute favorites.  I pour it over any kind of noodles (Udon, Kelp, Quinoa, or regular), use it as a dip for fruits and vegetables, or just eat it with a spoon.  I think it’s my favorite flavor.  I wish more things tasted like this.

Plus, it’s really easy to make and requires no cooking!  Did I mention it only takes a few minutes to make?  Perfect for those disorganized evenings when you don’t know what to make for supper.

 
 
Ingredients:
1/4 cup Tamari
3T Seasoned Rice Vinegar
2T Toasted Sesame Oil
2T Natural Peanut Butter – or Almond Butter
2T Tahini
1T Agave Nectar
1T Hot Sauce
1T Minced Fresh Garlic
1/4t Ground Ginger

Read the rest of this entry →

Feb18

Creamy Potato Soup

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Creamy Potato Soup
Creamy Potato Soup

For Christmas I received a brand new, sleek, chrome-ish Crock-Pot; I typically don’t like getting household appliances as gifts, my Dad always told me it was bad form to give your wife or mother something that will essentially give her more work to do.  BUT this was on my wishlist this last year and my dear Simon bought one for me to replace an old, beat up, blue, floral Crock-Pot of the 1980′s.  I’ve been using the Crock-Pot a lot lately; it sure is wonderful to smell dinner cooking in the house all day and then to have dinner ready 6-8 hours later without lifting a finger!

This recipe is adapted from one I found in my favorite new cookbook, The Vegan Slowcooker by Kathy Hester.  When I received my copy of this cookbook I flipped through it looking for something that I could make right away.  This Potato Soup consists of 4 ingredients and I had them all on hand, you probably do too.  It was SO easy I figured it was going to taste bad, but I made it anyway because it was easy and healthy, but it was really, really delicious too.  Crazy! Read the rest of this entry →

Feb17

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

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Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

After a few experiments, trials, and errors I’ve come up with a delicious vegan chocolate cookie.  It was inspired by my old favorite, German chocolate cake.  Please let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
2T Earth Balance or other butter replacement
3/4 cup Coconut Palm Sugar
2T Apple Sauce
1/2t Baking soda
1/8t Salt
1 Egg Replacer (I used 1T flax seed meal mixed with 3T water)
1t Vanilla
1/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
2/3 cup minus 4T Unbleached White Flour
2/3 cup Rolled Oats
1/4 cup Flax Seed Meal
1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 oz vegan Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/3 cup Flaked Coconut (plus more for sprinkling, if desired)
1/3 cup Chopped Almonds, toasted (plus more for sprinkling, if desired)
 

Preheat over to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl beat the Butter with an electric mixer for 20-30 seconds.  Add the Coconut Palm Sugar and Apple Sauce, mix again.  Add the Baking Soda and Salt, mix again.  Add the Egg Replacer and Vanilla, mix again.  Add the Whole Wheat and White Flours, mix again. Read the rest of this entry →