Vegan Knitting...and then some

Cranberry Orange Nut Muffins

Another muffin recipe from Vegan Brunch.  Another success, this time even more so than the blueberry muffins.  These light, fluffy muffins are soy-free, using no nondairy milks; instead using orange juice for liquid and flavor, along with some orange zest for pep, and almond extract to blend well with the cranberry flavor.

I'm allergic to the pecans in the recipe, so I substituted sliced almonds.  There aren't fresh cranberries available now, so I subbed frozen berries.  Last, I subbed whole wheat pastry flour for about 1/2 of the regular flour.  These changes all worked very well, and you couldn't tell there was any WW flour before.

These are currently my favorite muffins besides pumpkin, so I can't wait to make them again.

Bakery-style Blueberry Muffins

Last week I picked up a copy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new book, Vegan Brunch, and this morning I happily made the Bakery-style Berry Muffins.  They were easy to make, and turned out fantastically!  I cooked them for the exact time specified in the book and the browning on the bottom and sides is perfect, and the crumb and flavor very much in tune with the non-vegan bakery muffins I used to get.

I gave two to our vegan neighbors and there are only three left.  I used Trader Joe's wild blueberries, which are smaller than the typical frozen blueberries, rolled in flour to prevent too much "greying" of the muffin.  I refrained from altering anything in the recipe so that I know what the "target" muffin should be like.  Now if I want to experiment with anything like using some whole wheat pastry flour in place of some of the white flour, or lowering the sugar content, I'll know how my changes have affected the original muffin.

I can't wait to make more recipes from this book.  The font and layout are extremely easy on the eyes, with the ingredients presented in the order used in the recipes, as well as grouped by which are mixed together.  This makes following the recipes very easy, and since I always check back multiple times as I cook, I can easily see what comes next and make sure I didn't miss anything.  That last part is really important as I've been known to leave out key ingredients like the baking powder (hard, flat biscuits), half of the flour (very thin pancakes), or the salt (flat flavor).  The text has much larger line breaks and font than typically found in cookbooks, which makes reading while cooking very easy.  Finally, Isa gives very clear directions, so that I know, for example, how full to fill the muffin tins and how long to leave them in the pan after removing them from the oven.  These little details, such as letting the muffins cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan, can really make or break the recipe's success, and I am always grateful for their inclusion.

Favorite Mornings

 

Being woken up at 5:30 by the sunrise through my bedroom window

Making successful waffles for the first time (Vegan Family Favorites) served on my new IKEA plates.

 

Tulips open for the sun

Going to a new local farmer's market with a friend

Working in the garden

Opening the last pot of jam I made last summer with Kim and Isa

Working on a surprise Clapotis for someone special

Knitting? What's that?

Gosh, I just realized that there's been no knitting content on this blog in 6 weeks.  A blog that dares to include "knitting" in the title and then not provide knitting content is pretty gusty!  Allow me to explain.

I've been working slowly but steadily on Cozy - a blanket for my grandmother.  It's taken 10 balls of this fuzzy pink yarn that is perfect for the blanket but do not have any give.

Given that it's a rectangle with a very simple feather lace pattern, there's not much updating to do unless I thought people wanted to see larger and larger rectangles of fuzzy pink yarn.  I got almost all of the way done before I needed to take a break.  I anticipate finishing within a week.  Here's what it looks like now, folded in half.

I moved on to the second phase of Ravelry's Vegan Sock group KAL using the Brainless pattern and some Saucon Sock in a hunter green I had in my stash.  I hadn't used this yarn before and was looking forward to trying it.  The pattern is fairly simple, as the name suggests, a toe-up mainly stockingette sock with a cable up each side flanked by twisted stitches and a more interesting heel done with purl gussets that get slowly decreased as the heel flap is knit.  This is similar to the one I used to make the Diamond Waffle socks.

The sock started smoothly enough until I got to the end of the gusset increases.  With the stop and start knitting times I've had in the past two weeks, I'd missed a few increase stitches and when I began the heel turn, the setup row did not match the rest of the stitches.

In order to fix the mistakes properly, I needed to rip back about 8 rows.  I'd already had problems putting stitches back on the needles earlier in the sock if I dropped a stitch or made a mistake.  But putting the stitches back after ripping out all of them was a true nightmare.  I've heard people complaining about the splittiness of plant-based yarns before, especially some cottons where the yarn is composed of multiple strands.  But nothing compares to the horror of multiple cotton strands plus very fuzzy acrylic and nylon in a yarn that has absolutely no stretch.

Each stitch split into multiple pieces and the fuzzy ones split even more, turning direction which made it really hard to get them back onto the needle facing the same way.  I persevered and eventually got it but frankly, I haven't worked on the sock since and I have come to the conclusion that this yarn is just not very good quality and doesn't have enough stretch for socks. And although I've never abandoned a project this far along due to yarn issues, I think this may be my first one.

I am sorry to have lost the time but I think I will be much happier starting a new sock with a yarn I actually enjoy knitting with, and I have two balls of Panda Soy and several balls of Bamboozle waiting for me.

Goodbye Brainless sock!  I'm sorry it didn't work out between us.

Ginger Maki Bowl

Back in California, we used to enjoy eating at Samovar Tea House and our favorite dish was the Ginger Maki Bowl, filled with grilled ginger tofu, oolong rice topped with matcha powder and gomasio, shredded red beets, scallions, and nori pieces.

We've been craving that dish for a while and now that warm weather has come to the NW, it seemed appropriate to make our own version.

Here's the Samovar version.

And here is my version.

This version was a great success!  The only thing missing is the matcha powder that wasn't available at our local grocery store, and we pan fried the tofu since we don't have a grill pan yet.  The combination of warm and cold was perfect after a 70 degree day.  The tofu was thinly sliced and marinated in soy sauce, freshly grated ginger, and a tsp of brown sugar before being sauteed in a tiny bit of oil.  The basmati rice was cooked in our ricemaker with about 2 tsp of oolong tea leaves.  The beets were shredded and then seasoned with rice vinegar and black pepper.  Everything got a pinch of salt and the rice was liberally sprinkled with gomasio.  If you've never tried gomasio, it's a wonderful Japanese seasoning that's made of toasted sesame seeds, sea salt, and finely ground seaweed - about 4 different kinds.

I forsee many bowls of this in the hot summer months ahead.  It's also good with golden beets or oshinko (pickled Japanese radish).  And it works well as leftovers, as you can see here.

Seattle fare

I returned earlier this week from a 3-day conference in Seattle.  It was my first time spending more than an overnight there (at a club and airport hotel for a show), and my first time away from home alone in many years.  Seattle offers a lot of choices for vegans, although I was mostly limited to what I could reach on foot from downtown.  I unfortunately became sick partway through the trip and so I did not photograph several of my delicious meals.

My first night I met up with a fellow poster from the Post Punk Kitchen at Bamboo Garden, a vegan Chinese restaurant with a very long menu.  After a lot of hemming and hawing, I settled on the Mandarin Beef, which boasted a faux meat beef I'd never had before, in a delicious sauce on top of crispy noodles.  The friend ordered a spicy faux chicken with asparagus and shittake mushrooms.  And we shared wonton noodle soup and sauteed Chinese greens.  The meal was delicous and we had enough leftover to each have lunch the next day.

The second night, a friend came to visit from Vancouver with a rental car, so we took the opportunity of going to Cafe Flora.  Cafe Flora is a fancier vegetarian restaurant, more along the lines of Millennium in San Francisco but not quite as good or expensive.  We both chose Mexican-inspired dishes: my friend had the potato taco plate and I had yam tamales in a mole sauce with cilantro jicama.  It was a lot of food, and although my rice wasn't quite what I'd expected, the rest of the meal was delicious.

The next day I met up with the first friend at the Pan Africa Market in Pike's Place Market for Ethiopian food.  We both got the veggie combo.  I was pretty sick by this point, so that definitely colored my experience but I'd give it a 2 1/2  out of 5 for the food being lukewarm and not very well spiced.  Also, as you can see, the food was served on injera but didn't come with any.  Perhaps dinner is better?

My husband joined me that evening and we returned to Bamboo Garden for another great meal, this time featuring mock duck soy skin served over more Chinese greens and a soup I wish I hadn't ordered.

On my final day, I didn't want to go too far from the convention center, so I stopped by Cyber Dogs, a small cyber cafe featuring a huge variety of veggie dogs plus some other dishes.  Since I wasn't feeling so well, I ordered a baked potato with vegan butter, scallions, and veggie bacon.  The wait was long since it was lunch time and there was only one person taking orders and making the food.  When it came, it was tasty, and I got to use the computer while I waited.

Breakfast was confined to Whole Foods since it was only 2 blocks from my hotel on my walk to the convention center, and I found everything I needed easily there.  I'm disappointed that I didn't make it to Cinnamon Works to try some of their pastries but there's only so much you can keep track of on such a trip.

All in all, a very successful trip food-wise, and next time I'll try some of the many other places to eat in Seattle.

A toast!

Here's to my first paycheck of 2009!  I started working a few weeks ago after a long time off.  It's a part-time job, but a job nonetheless.  My drink is called the 3 liars and features housemade cucumber gin, lemonade, and a British liquor called Pimm's! So tasty.

So now that I'm working again, I have to get used to bringing my lunch to work.  So I got out the old trusty Laptop Lunchbox, and here are the first two days' lunches.  I try to pack substantial lunches because I tend to have a big appetite when I'm working with children, and because toddlers often are interested in trying your food.  I'm happy to help little ones eat better and more varied food, so I like to have enough to share if they are interested.  If not, then I'll eat it as an afternoon snack.

Thermos of basmati rice, frozen veggie blend from Trader Joe's (heated and mixed with rice), soy yogurt with blueberries, cranberry bars, and a clementine.

More basmati rice, black beans with salsa and some cilantro, mixture of onions, corn, and Field Roast chipotle sausage, Cara Cara orange.  (Pardon the terrible photo).

I often bring a snack or even breakfast as well since I leave the house at 8 a.m., and I'm happily enjoying my Wrap n Mats that I got from Albion Cooks, and that were just featured on Vegan Lunchbox.  Perfect for a sandwich, toast, some crackers, and who knows what else!

FO: Woodsy Socks

Pattern: Leyburn Socks
Yarn:  Crystal Palace Yarns' Panda Cotton in "Muir Woods"
Needles: size 1 and size 1.5 Addi Turbo circulars

Modifications:  I have a larger foot than the designer, but also ready that other people had trouble with the ankles being too large.  So I slowly increased the sole stitches to create a higher instep, starting about halfway along the foot, and ending at the heel, with the same number of stitches the pattern calls for  after the "after heel" increases (72).  I knit a no-wrap short-row heel and then started the pattern right away.  About a third of the way up (as soon as I'd passed the ankle), I moved down to a size 1 needle so that the socks wouldn't be baggy.  I used this needle until the last four rows of the ribbing, at which point I switched back to the 1.5s to make getting them on and off easier.  I bound off with a k2, k2tog tbl method to make the edge attractive and stretchy.

Notes: I love these socks!  The color of the yarn is so lovely, and it goes really well with the lattice pattern, which obscures some of the pooling Panda Cotton colorways can have.  They are very comfortable and fit just right.  I love doing toe up socks because I have so much control over how tall to make them, and after leaving a bit for any future mending, this is the perfect height for me.

I also am very proud to say that I have now mastered the continental knit!  I've practiced it before, since having some great lessons with Speedknitter Miriam, but this was my first big project besides a baby hat, which was knit entirely in Continental.  This is a great project for anyone interested in practicing because there are no purl stitches except in the ribbing at the top, but the lattice work breaks up the plain stockinette and is easy to do Continental. I can definitely tell how my gauge firmed up since the second sock is a bit tighter than the first in the leg, but the difference isn't large enough to cause a problem and I'm glad it firmed up.  For now, I'm using the Norwegian purl method, which involves keeping the yarn to the back of the work and twisting the needle behind to pick it up, but I will soon do some practice swatches to see what type of purl works best for me.  I may find myself using combination knitting when doing flat stockinette since my purl gauge is about the same as my knitting, but I'd love to find a quick Continental method that feels comfortable.  I love how much less my hands move.

Black Bean Burgers

Last night we made the Black Bean Burgers from Veganomicon, with the cilantro sour cream.  Served on fresh buns with frozen french fries.  I dipped my fries in the cream.

The texture of the burgers was great.  I felt they were lacking on spices (1 tsp chile powder and 1/2 tsp cumin) so next time I will tinker with those quite a bit. 

I liked the flavor of the sour cream but it was a bit too watery for the burgers.  Next time I would use half silken tofu and half soft tofu to make it a bit thicker.

Resolution Check-in

Pumpkin Ziti with roasted brussels sprouts
(used whole wheat bread for bread crumbs, and ricotta made from almonds and tofu)


Leyburn Sock progress
(almost done with the first one!)


My yoga mat
(on the shelf in the closet by the door - easy to grab when I go to class 2x a week)


Peek at a sculpture by my best friend
(spoke to her on the phone this week for the first time in a long time)