Fennel Risotto and Salisbury Seitan

If you are starting to crave lighter foods, like I am, this is a nice one to make. I had to use up the fennel I bought from the farmers market.

Fennel Risotto

2 T. olive oil (more may be needed)
1 medium fennel, thinly sliced
1/2 C. onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 C. risotto
1/3 C. white wine or marsala
4 C. vegetable broth, hot ( may need more)
S & P to taste

Heat a bit of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat and add fennel to saute until somewhat soft. Once done take out the fennel and put in a seperate bowl and set aside. Next add more oil to pan and saute onions and garlic until soft. You may have to add more oil to pan if dry and add risotto, stir until light brown. Once lightly browned add the wine and stir until hardly any liquid is left. Next start adding the warmed vegetable broth 1/2 C. at a time, stir, and once the liquid is almost soaked into the risotto is when you add the next 1/2 c. of broth. It's possible you made need more liquid. Keep the process up until there is no more broth. Once the risotto is done you can stir in the fennel. Season to taste.
If you want you can add a Tablespoon of Earth Balance just to give it a more creamier texture. You can also add a dab of Tofutti cream cheese or any soy cream cheese.

The Salisbury Seitan recipe is from The Real Food Daily cookbook. For this dish I also use their seitan recipe. It has a softer, spongier texture that is perfect for this. The one thing I do change with the Salisbury recipe is that the sauce asks for 1/2 c. oil, too much oil for me! I only use like 1 Tablespoon of oil and add more water and a bit more soy to thin out. The sauce just soaks into this seitan. This is a good recipe for people who are transitioning into vegetarianism/veganism. My husband loves this! The seitan looks like it is dry but it's not, believe me. Although I usually have extra sauce in the pan, I halved the sauce recipe that why there isn't any extra to spoon on top. You can also make gravy to put on this or just make more sauce and heat it in a pan. Serve with a nice green salad and you are good to go!

Li'l layer cake

Experimenting flavors for a cake I'm going to be making for my cousins baby shower so I made a small 6 3/4inch cake . This is a four layer yellow cake with a Chambord(black rasberry liqueur)buttercream filling and finished off with ganache. The idea is to put a layer of fresh rasberries in the middle but I didn't have any at the time. My tasters loved it so this may be it.

White Bean Veggie Burgers

Didn't really feel in the mood to cook. But I've been wanting to try these cannellini bean patties from, the show Emeril Green, on Planet Green channel. They were okay. I would add more seasoning next time, if I do make them. I served them with a mix of sweet potato and white potato baked fries with a creole seasoning. These called for eggs but of course I didn't use so I just left that out. They held together rather well without it. like to load my burgers with lettuce, tomato, avacodo, etc. These whole wheat buns are perfect because they are on the smaller size so the burgers are a perfect fit. Here is the recipe.

Emeril's White Bean-Veggie Burgers
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, courtesy Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Yield: 4 veggie burgers
Ingredients:

2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil (I only used a couple of tsp. of oil due to the juice of the veggies)

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped celery1/2 cup finely chopped carrot

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon minced chives

2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley

1/2 cup dry unseasoned breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon Emeril's Original Essence or other Creole Seasoning

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Hamburger buns, for servingSliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce leaves, pickles, avocado, etc., for garnishing, as desiredCondiments for serving, such as ketchup or salsa, mayonnaise, mustard, as desired

Method:In a nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and saute‚ the onion, bell pepper, celery, carrot, and garlic until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside to cool.
In a medium mixing bowl, mash the beans with the back of a fork. Stir in the cooled vegetables, , chives, parsley, breadcrumbs, and seasonings and mix well. Divide the mixture into 4 patties. Wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

When ready to serve, heat the remaining olive oil in a large nonstick skillet and cook the burgers until golden on both sides and heated through, about 2 minutes per side. Serve hot, on lightly toasted buns, garnished with desired condiments.

Seitan Cutlets with Mushroom Ragu,mashed potatoes and sauteed greens

Valentines is about sharing a great meal and spending quality time with the ones you love. Oh, and a nice glass of wine or a bottle, I prefer the later.

To our surprise my husband arrived home from work early and he suggested we go into town to walk around a bit before dinner, so we bundled up and headed on out. This actually was perfect timing because the french bread dough was on it's second rise.

Before dinner we had a little entertainment. My sons Valentine gift to his dad was playing a song from a band my husband likes, we had set up the music/office room with candles and my son played his guitar while I sang. That was a lot of fun.

Next it was dinner and was it amazing if I do say so myself. hee hee.

I made seitan cutluts from VCON, smothered in a mushroom ragout(from Emeril on the green channel) if you love mushrooms as much as we do you will love this! I did add a bit of Marsala wine to give it a deeper flavor. I put this on a bed of mashed potatoes and a side of sauteed greens. Served with a salad and homemade french bread. It looked and tasted like a meal from a nice restaurant. I was very pleased with myself as well as my family was, as there was not one morsel left on their plates. I will definitely make this for dinner guests.

Blackberry swirled "cheesecake"

My husband and son love cheesecake, so every Valentines they expect me to make them one.

This year I added Blackberry juice and swirled it in. Topped off with fresh blackberries.

Happy Valentines Day!

These treats are off to school. I told myself I wasn't going to stay up late to make cookies...but when I saw my son's reaction this morning and couldn't stop thanking me, it was worth it. My son is in the fifth grade so maybe this will be the last year of making treats for his class. I wish time would slow down.

These treats are chocolate cookies with a chocolate mint coating and just a bit of red crystal sugar dashed on there.

Chocolate cookie recipe:

1/2 C. Earth Balance

1/2 C. granulated sugar

1/2 C. powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. egg replacer (Ener-g)

2 T. cold coffee or water

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 C. cocoa powder

1 1/4 + 2 T. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp salt or less

In a mixing bowl cream together Earth Balance and sugars with an electric mixer. While that is being creamed, in a small bowl mix together your egg replacer and liquid of choice. (I try not to use egg replacers in my baked goods but sometimes it is needed). Next add egg replacer mixture and vanilla to the creamed EB & sugar mixture, continue to mix. When that is thoroughly mixed together, incorporate the cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt. When it is completely mixed and a dough is formed, take out and shape into a disk, wrap and refrigerate for an hour or less.

Heat oven to 350. Roll out dough( I rolled in between an 1/8-1/4in.) and cut out with your choice of cookie cutter. Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool for about a minute before transfering to cooling rack. I was able to cut out 18 med. size cookies.

Chocolate coating: If I were making these for dessert or gifts I would use better quality chocolate but since it was for the school kids I just used the chocolate chips.

1 12oz pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 T. vegetable shortening

1 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract

sprinkles (optional)

In a double broiler melt chocolate chips and vegetable shortening. To get a thinner chocolate just add more shortening. Once melted stir in the peppermint extract. Next coat your cookies,

it got a bit messy for me. Then I sprinkled on sugar crystals. Once your done set in refrigerater to set the chocolate for about 15-30 min. Then your good to go!

Birthday cake

This is a chocolate cake with mint chocolate mousse filling and mint icing. I made this for my sons 11th birthday last month. He plays the guitar so I thought I'd make him a cake decorated with the notes to "Happy Birthday" on it. It was fun and everybody loved it! The chocolate mousse recipe is from VCTOTW.