Sway and Ace

A not so Christmas creation...

2008-12-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

...But good just the same. I had my sisters-in-law come over Friday to Saturday for a sleepover. We did a lot of baking and laughing while they were here. For dinner that night I made a homemade pizza. It came out really well and last night we decided to try it again. Only this time we made a taco pizza!

It came out really well! It's our family's replacement for Godfather's taco pizza. Less expensive, and the lettuce doesn't wilt before you can eat it. I really like it with sour cream smeared on the top of it.

More Robin FoodPorn

2008-12-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

With a testing deadline of December 24th for her current book, I have been quickly finishing up the testing on a few recipes for Robin.

{Note, I've now received permission to print titles of recipes, just not the recipes themselves. :)}

Savory Artichoke Squares feel like a cross between a really good bread, a great sauceless pizza, and a decadent appetizer, all in one.

Chocolate Faux-Silk Pie is creamy, silky, rich, and downright sinful.

Indian Eggplant Fritters go perfectly with other Indian dishes, and are crunchy and flavorful.

Pierogi Stuffed with Potato and Fried Onion is my FAVORITE recipe thus far. This is comfort food at its finest, and the whole batch was inhaled by Rian, Oliver and I in less then 10 minutes, no joke. This recipe alone is worth buying the book for.

Not a testing recipe, but foodporn-worthy in its own right, Fettuccine with Red Lentil Sauce is a recipe from Robin's book Vegan Planet. The sauce is delicious and creamy, and innocuous enough to trick an 18 month old into consuming 3 bowls of pasta slathered in it.

Women's Health Subscription

2008-12-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

I also apologize for not posting near as much as I should. I'm hoping to get a camera soon and there will be an onslaught of pictures coming in then. *fingers crossed*

Life has unfolded very un-beautifully for us since we bought our house and I've been running like crazy trying to get things done.

Anyway, I decided last year to get a Women's Health subscription in hopes that it would be a positive influence in my life. I thought they would have some good ideas for keeping energy levels up (which is necessary when you have a toddler) and some fun recipes and good work out tips. As my year's subscription comes to a close, I have realized that I was sorely mistaken in my views of WH. Don't get me wrong, they have good tips on makeup and fashion and the occasional hint on how to spice up your "bedroom life" and some decent recipes. But aside from those (which are many in number but very few are actually helpful) the entire magazine is basically screaming "You look like crap! Go workout!" And then there are the success stories from women who write about how they used to look like you and they DISGUSTED THEMSELVES! So they jumped on the treadmill 3 times a week or quit eating out so much and now they are pretty and they love themselves because they don't look like YOU anymore! And you just sit there thinking, "I didn't think I looked that bad!" Each issue comes with full color pictures of how you SHOULD look if you would just eat this - which ends up tasting like cardboard with bad icing on it, or that which goes down about as easily as it comes back up and tastes about the same too. So at the risk of losing all contact with the outside world and losing all of these wonderful ads for cardboard, I am not renewing my subscription to Women's Health. And I like to think that I'll be saving a few skinny trees from wishing they were fat people so they didn't have to get cut down to make this magazine.

Another Day, Another Cookbook

2008-12-16T06:14:00.000-08:00

I apologize deeply for my lack of posting. Something a little like life {and a butt-busy one at that} has hit me, and I just haven't had the time or wherewithal to get my butt over here and post.

This will all be changing now. I was recently chosen to test for Robin Robertson's new cookbook, 1000 Vegan Recipes. I am extremely flattered to have been chosen, as those within vegan circles will know...she's a freaking way famous cookbook author! hee hee *gets a little giddy and starstruck*

Ahem.

In any event, I will be testing like crazy for her for the next few months. I've been asked not to post actual recipes {which makes sense} or recipe titles {which makes...some sense}, so I will do my best to give very brief descriptions...and pictures...oh the pictures!

My first testing assignment was a batch of peanut buttery muffins. These little babies took me right back to the days of Elementary School lunchboxes. If these muffins are any indication, I am going to LOVE testing for this cookbook.

{I also recently acquired a Digital SLR, so hopefully my photography will be improving. This photo is not that great, mostly because there was no natural light. Be expecting better photos in the future. :D}

It's Crunch Time!

2008-08-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it's down to the final hour {erm few days} of testing for Joy's cookbook, and consequently I've been doing a LOT of testing. On Tuesday evening, I will be finished testing for the book, and I will begin anxiously awaiting its arrival on the market. :D

I thought I'd share a few of my most recent testing adventures.

Let's start with this morning...Monfongo w/ Cilantro Lime Gremolata

This dish was somewhat time-consuming, but really yummy and really fun to make. It's basically fried mashed plantain "cups" filled with roasted vegetables and topped with a garlicly gremolata.

Chocolate Chai Cookies were spicey and chocolately, chewy and downright delicious!

Last night I tried out her Sweet Rice Cake. It's creamy and sweet, and perfectly paired with mango and baby scoops of Salt Lime Sorbet:

Lunch yesterday was a veritable Joy feast! We had...

Mediterranean Rolls {These rolls paired lemon-tahini rice with cucumber, mushroom, and onion, and were all wrapped up in grape leaves. The sauce was a silk tomato balsamic syrup.}

Roasted Brussels Sprouts were the perfect side, made sweet and tasty with their accompanying grapes.

To finish it off, we had sweet and sticky Individual Toffee Puddings. They soaked up the toffee and were melt-in-your-mouth delicious:

I'll be back later, with pictures of my adventure of Orange Pepper Seitan w/ Quinoa Polenta and Black Bean Sauce, as well as sweet grapefruit sorbet with hemp seed.

2008-07-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

Okay I got in trouble a few weeks ago about not posting. So I finally found some time to sit and put my pictures on my computer and post. YAY!! Go me. I was also told that I might upset people with my recipes since the majority of the people reading this are vegan. So before you read further you should probably know...I'm not vegan. Sway and I set up this blog to archive our ideas, hopes and dreams. So here I am. I encourage anyone who is vegan to "vegan-ize" my recipes if you'd like. Just please don't negatively comment on my posts. Ok here it goes...

This is the first creative move of my life so don't laugh. This is a spin on a family recipe (well probably not a family recipe, but a recipe that my mother used to make for special occassions). It has cream cheese, shrimp, crabmeat, and chili sauce that I formed into balls and wrapped with crescent roll dough. I then baked it, and let it sit so that the cream cheese firmed up and didn't dribble down my face.

This is a dinner that my husband and son both love. It is steak, noodles and steamed vegetables cooked in a teriyaki sauce. I like having the vegetables seperate, but you can combine them to one big dish and they taste just as good.

Okay, this last picture was a recipe that I created partially out of desperation and partially out of the novice creative mind that I have. This is cream cheese, worcestershire, green onion, garlic salt and hot sauce which I piped into baked rolls. Again I let it sit so the cream cheese could firm up again therefore avoiding the scalding chin and lips.

Well that's all I have for now...more coming soon (if I don't get voted off the blog.lol)

Breakfast for Dinner

2008-07-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Is there anything better than breakfast for dinner? I really don't think so. I was tired and grumpy tonight, and I knew that waffles would be the appropriate tonic.

These waffles are special, with a bit of coconut milk in them. I covered them in sliced bananas, fresh blueberries, and pure maple syrup. What a delicious way to end the day!

Dinner for Ginger

2008-07-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

My friend Ginger mentioned that she wanted to come over for dinner the other night, so I thought it would be a great time to try out a bunch of testing recipes on her.

We had caramelized broccoli bruscetta with white "cheddar" sauce to start:

The caramelized broccoli was so delicious and beautiful all on its own, I think I might make it again just as a side dish:

I spread the leftover "cheddar" sauce on crackers the next day for lunch. Delicious!

Then we had some vegan caesar salad with homemade croutons. It was similar enough to the normal caesar salad, I don't think any omni would be able to tell the difference:

The main dish was a wild mushroom risotto with white asparagus. It turned out perfectly and was golden and creamy:

For dessert I made a fruit and cream tart, with homemade graham cracker crust and vanilla coconut cream custard for filling:

With the leftover graham cracker dough, I made some quick homemade graham crackers for Oliver. He loves them! Not only are they healthier and more vegan {lol} than normal graham crackers, they were really easy and tasted MUCH better. I'm never buying graham crackers again!

It felt like a marathon getting all that done before Ginger got here after work, but it was so delicious and she's such a gracious guinea pig, it made it all worth it!

Homemade Indian Food + Strawberries to Boot

2008-06-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

I've tried many times to make Indian food at home, and it always came out lackluster. Well, thanks to the latest recipe I've tested for Joy -- no more! For last night's dinner I made a delicious daal from mung beans and spices. I served it with brown basmati rice and homemade chapati bread for scooping.

Mung Bean Daal:

Chapati {simple Indian flatbread}:

For dessert I made up some quick chocolate-covered strawberries. My husband was surprised and happy about them. They are romantic and look like they take a lot of work, but they are really so quick and easy:

Ras el Hanout Roasted Beets

2008-06-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

So...I couldn't stay away for long, apparently. I got bored with work, so Oliver and I decided to go into the kitchen and make some lunch!

We decided to make Joy's recipe for Ras el Hanout Roasted Beets.

Ras el Hanout is a North African spice mixture, and is used in African and Moroccan food.

I had to make the Ras el Hanout mixture from scratch, as I couldn't find it at a store:

I also made a Cashew Crema to go on top, which is a vegan version of creme fresh. It is very tangy with a hint of lime, and super delicious on anything savory:

The beets were roasted in the Ras el Hanout and a mixture of garlic and various other seasonings. After they came out of the oven, I drizzled them in the Cashew Crema. Yum yum! Best lunch I've had in a while:

*********************************

As an aside, I swear Oliver is the cutest thing ever. He sees me cooking a lot, and today he's been copying me. He stole a couple of my measuring cups while I was unloading the dishwasher, and he's been sitting with his bucket of toys, measuring his cars and Star Wars figures and then dumping them into his toy bucket. He stirs it all with the flag from his Wonder Pets flyboat. Just a few minutes ago he was going around picking up every little bit of anything he could find on the floor, putting it in his measuring cup, and stirring it with the straw from his sippy cup. Crazy kid!

Carrots -- Not just for cute bunnies!

2008-06-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

Last night for dinner and this morning for breakfast I tested two more of Joy's recipes, both involving grated carrot. Carrots lend a fresh sweetness to a dish, and are high in vitamins A and C, which help your eye-sight, lower your cholesterol, and reduces your chance of cancer and heart attacks.

For dinner I made Agave Mustard Poppyseed dressing and put it over a huge salad of romaine hearts, shredded carrots, grape tomatoes, raisins, and sunflower seeds:

For breakfast this morning I made Early Gray Carrot Muffins. They were spicey and sweet and a great way to start off the day!

I promise someday before too long I'll write about more than just food, but being so absorbed in recipe testing yields lots of pictures!

Adventures in Vegan Cheese

2008-06-23T17:53:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I've mentioned it in this blog yet...but I'm vegan. Perhaps I'll make a post on the whys and hows at some point in the future, but for now, suffice it to say that I don't eat anything that used to have a mother, or came from something that used to have a mother. The end.

I've only been vegan for a short while, and I hadn't yet ventured into the intimidating world of vegan cheese...until today. My first attempt was actually somewhat successful. It was a test recipe for Chevre from Joy's cookbook. It's made from cashews, and set with agar flakes {a vegetarian "gelatin"}. After a bit of trial and tribulation, I was finally able to concoct a cheese-like substance that tasted like a rich fancy imported cream cheese. Overall, I'm impressed with the results.

I spread some of the Chevre on pieces of whole grain toast and topped them with strawberry preserves:

Then I froze one log of the Chevre to bring it to a cut-able texture. I sliced it into rounds, dipped the rounds in soy milk, coated them thoroughly in panko bread crumbs, and then baked them in the oven until they were golden brown. I used these rounds in a Raspberry & Baked Chevre Salad w/ Pineapple Champagne Vinaigrette. The salad had raspberries and macadamia nuts and little chunks of pineapple. It was a gorgeous light summer lunch:

To go with the salad, I made another of Joy's test recipes: skinny chewy Savory Sticks!

All in all it was a good day, and I had a lot of fun in the kitchen! I can't wait to do some more cooking tomorrow.

The Perfect Summer Dinner

2008-06-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight I tested yet another of Joy's recipes: Three Bean Salad of Cannelloni, Garbanzo, and Green Beans. It is, as the title would suggest, composed primarily from Cannelloni, Garbanzo, and Green Beans. :D However, what the title fails to highlight are the bright tomatoes, peppery arugula, and luscious thyme vinaigrette. This was the perfect dinner for a hot summer night, and such a snap to make:

Joy's Recipes Rock!

2008-06-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some more testing this past weekend -- okay, a lot of testing -- and it's official...Joy's recipes rock! When Joy's book is published, everyone in the world should buy it, as it is bound to be incredible.

Here's what I've been testing...

Sunshine Slaw {made with kumquats!}

Wild Mushroom Pate

Edamame Pesto

Savory Farina

Spicy Balsamic Syrup

Rosemary Fig Focaccia

Greens Au Gratin {kale, spinach, and swiss chard in a sauce made from sunchokes}

Asparagus w/ Creamy Saffron Sauce

Chocolate Chip Cookies {made w/ part oat flour}

Roasted Garlic Dip

Carribean Potato Salad

Mushrooms & Grapes

2008-06-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, well not really. I didn't really cook something combining mushrooms and grapes. That would be adventurous of me though, wouldn't it? Ace, that's your next challenge: make me a recipe including both mushrooms and grapes. :D

In any event, I did a bit more cookbook testing this afternoon, and I thought I'd post the results:

Wild Rice Mushroom Soup w/ Vermouth

Peanut Butter Shortbread w/ Concord Grape Sorbet

Both recipes were wonderfully good. Joy {the cookbook author} is so wonderfully creative. I feel so privileged to be testing for her book.

Recipe Testing - Sway

2008-06-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lack of posts, but between the baby, work, and cooking...my life has been insane!

I've taken a break from the cookbook I've been writing to help a publisher test another cookbook that is due to be out this fall.

I don't have much time to write, but here are a few pictures of the recipes I've tested so far...

Cranberry Scones

Vanilla Custard

Strawberry Shortcake {made with scones + vanilla custard}

Perfect Potatoes {seasoned with rosemary and served with grilled portabella and greens}

As I'm heavy into the recipe testing at the moment, I promise more food-pr0nalicious posts to come!

2008-04-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

see more crazy cat pics

Enter Ace...

2008-03-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

OK, hello I'm Ace. As my spectacular partner in crime told you, this is the blog of our life. It will bookmark the good days and the bad days for all to learn from. I'm very excited to get started with it so, let's get the introduction over with. Shall we?

About Ace...

I'm 22 years old (will be 23 in July) and I'm not as depressed as Sway about my age.lol I have been married for 2 years and my husband and I are the parents of a 2 year old boy. I am a stay-at-home-mom and I love it. There are a lot of days when I would LOVE to have a normal conversation with someone who could understand me, but well, that's life.

I love cooking and being creative. I'm not very good at either, but sometimes I get lucky and make something that's good. Music and movies are my choices of entertainment however, having a child can inhibit that. I love to read! I am currently collecting everything that Agatha Christie has ever written. I have all of her novels and I'm reading them in publication order. I'm on/around 47 at the moment.

Well that's pretty much it about me. I hope that this blog will be a helpful place where you can get anything you need. If you need a quick recipe for dinner, look here. If you need help with your family, look here. If you need comic relief from your hectic day, definitely look here.

Alright, let's get started!!!

Sway - Introduction

2008-03-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

And...we are live! Hello out there to all of the everyone {well, currently no one} who reads or will read our blog. I am Sway. My beautiful and fabulous co-blogger Ace will come in here at some point and introduce herself. For now, I'll tell you a little about me and our blog.

About Sway...

I'm 25 years old {which is so depressingly near the end of my mid-twenties that I can scarcely bear to think about it}. I've been married for 5 years to the love of my life, and have an adorable 10 month old little boy - Oliver. I work for eBay Inc. as boss lady and all around chancellor of the Live Auctions section of the site {http://www.ebayliveauctions.com}. Since the advent of baby Oliver, they've allowed me to work from home, and that makes me one busy-bee work-at-home-mommy. There's always a point every day where I'm wanting to tear my hair out, but I'm endlessly grateful for this unique opportunity to keep my career and still be a stay-at-home-mom. I'm a giant literary nerd, so it should come as no surprise that I studied English in college and I'm debating going back, for no other reason than I love to learn.

And, the standard pretentious introductory fair:

Dreadfully sarcastic, but a philanthropist at heart. In awe of the world. Enamored with people that use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. A musician. A writer. A binge-reader. I'm very nearly sure that there's something about me that's interesting, but I can't for the life of me think of what it is at the moment. I play video games incessantly. I'm a geek in general. I live with my headphones on. I wear glasses that are the wrong prescription because I can't stand to see the world clearly. I used to change my hair color with my mood. I'm terribly unimpressed with life, but I hear that's quite in fashion nowadays. I've wanted to fly away to other planets for as long as I can remember. {I dream of spaceships and midnight flights.}

Things I LOVE:
. indie rock
. bad 80s movies/indie films/cult classics/dumb guy action movies
. Lego {esp. of the Star Wars variety}
. video games, like woah
. binge reading
. computery things
. cooking
. writing
. cleaning
. organizing
. dinosaurs
. spaceships
. finance
. Rubik's Cubes
. caffeine
. strawberries
. cold cereal

And I suppose that is me, in my textual entirety.

Sway's Take on the Blog...

Ace and I wanted a place to ramble about our lives, our cooking endeavors, politics, the media, and the universe in general. You will probably find a little bit of everything here. I personally am in the middle of writing a cookbook, so there will probably be LOTS of cooking updates from me. I know Ace loves to cook too, but I'll let her introduce her ideas for what she's going to post here in her own introductory post.

So again, welcome! I hope you enjoy what you find here.

{Note: Are you admiring our gorgeous banner and icons? They were done by the talented Kelly of sistersvegan.blogspot.com. She does custom commissions, check her out if you need something to spruce up your blog! She is reasonably priced, and rocks my face off.}