Pretzel Bread Rolls (or Bowls)

These pretzel bread rolls (or bowls) are surprisingly easy to make considering how awesome they look and taste. The recipe is adapted from A Beautiful Mess's recipe. The idea came to me after making the Post Punk Kitchen's delicious Tempeh Chili con Frijoles. Bread bowls add a decadent touch to any soup or chili, and making them yourself is not nearly as much work as I think some people might imagine. After making the bowls a couple times I decided to try adapting the recipe to make rolls, and I must admit I was not disappointed with the results. You can also use this recipe to make old-fashioned straight-up soft pretzels by rolling the dough into snakes and twisting into pretzel shapes.

Ingredients:
-3 Tbs Earth Balance (or vegan butter of your choice)
-2 C hot water
-1 Tbs brown sugar
-2 ¼ tsp yeast
-4 C all purpose flour
-2 C white wheat flour
-2 tsp salt
-8 to 10 C water
-⅓ C baking soda
-2 Tbs melted Earth Balance (or vegan butter of your choice)
-2 Tbs coarse grain salt

To make:
1. In the bowl of your standing mixer (or a large bowl), dissolve the butter and sugar in the 2 C hot water and stir well until butter is completely melted. Sprinkle yeast over the top and proof 5-6 minutes, until frothy and foamy.

Proofed yeast, so frothy and foamy.

2. If using a standing mixer, you'll want to use your bread hook attachment. Stir in the all purpose flour and 2 tsp salt. Scrape down the sides and mix in the white wheat flour until it forms a ball. Knead about 4 to 5 minutes (or run at medium- medium low in your standing mixer) until you have a firm, elastic dough. Turn onto a floured surface and form a ball. Lightly grease the bowl and replace the dough ball and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise for about an hour, or until roughly doubled in size.


3. Punch down and turn onto a floured surface. Divide into 8 pieces for bowls, or 16 for rolls. Keep in mind that they are going to rise again and expand when baking, so if you want, you can divide into even smaller pieces. For rolls (or straight-up pretzels) I usually make between 16 and 20. Also for rolls, you want to press them quite flat, because when they expand you don't want them to turn into spheres, which ironically is exactly what you want them to do for bowls. Place on a parchment-paper covered baking sheet, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise another 20 min.

4. While the rolls/bowls are rising, preheat your oven to 400 F. Put the 8-10 cups water in a big pot or sauce pan and bring to a low boil. Add the baking soda, this part is awesome because the water gets incredibly fizzy and you think it's going to overflow but then it calms back down just as suddenly as it went crazy. Once the rolls/bowls are done rising, gently place them in the boiling water for 45 seconds to a minute, flipping half way through, then place back on the baking sheet with a slotted spoon. Cut an "X" in the top of each roll/bowl with a sharp knife, then brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt.

5. Once every roll/bowl is so buttered and salted, bake for 15-18 minutes, until very brown. Serve or store!

PPK's Tempeh Chili con Frijoles

Served in homemade whole wheat pretzel bread bowl.

Today's recipe is another favorite from my Vegan Chef Idol, Isa Chandra Moskowitz of the Post Punk Kitchen. This tempeh chili con frijoles (Spanish for Chili with Beans... really putting my Spanish major to work on that one...) is rich, meaty, and flavorful and sure to win over even the most dedicated carnivore. The tempeh, when prepared properly, makes a great substitution for the ground meat typical of this Southwestern favorite. Stay tuned: in my next recipe, I'll teach you how to make those awesome looking pretzel bread bowls! ¡Buen Provecho!

Ingredients:
-1 227g package tempeh, diced
-1 lg onion, diced

Just look at those spices...

-1 green bell pepper, diced
-1 lg carrot, diced small
-3 cloves garlic
-1 Tbs + 2 tsp olive oil
-2 tsp soy sauce
-3 Tbs chili powder
-2 tsp cumin
-½ tsp oregano
-1½ tsp salt
-several dashes black pepper
-1 425g can beans (pinto, kidney, black, garbanzo...)
-1 C dark beer
-1 425g can diced tomatoes
-3 Tbs tomato paste
-1½ C + ½ C veggie broth
-2 tsp agave syrup
1½ Tbs lemon juice

1. In a large pot, cook onions, green bell pepper, and carrots over Med heat, stirring occasionally, until tender and brown (15-20 minutes).

2. Once that's started, put tempeh in a large frying pan and cover w/ ½ C veggie broth. It should be almost covered, add water if necessary. Add soy sauce. Simmer on High for 15 minutes, or until liquid absorbed. Mash into crumby chunks with the flat side/ edge of your wooden spoon. Add 2 tsp olive oil, drop heat to Medium/ Medium Lo, and saute 15 minutes.

3. Add garlic to veggies, saute 1 minute. Add salt and spices, saute 1 minute more. Add beer and stir hard to deglaze the pot. Cook 2 more minutes, add tomatoes and tomato paste, beans, veggie stock, and tempeh. Cover for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook 30 min more. Add agave, and lemon juice, stir again, and set aside to cool. Serve, ideally in the delicious pretzel bread bowls I will post on here shortly!

Tempeh ready to be added to the pot.

Time for the beans!

Do I really have to wait another hour?!

Served with avocado ranch dip in a pretzel bread bowl.

Old Timey New England Baked Beans

"Now roll that beautiful bean footage!"

This recipe is an authentic old fashioned New England-style baked beans recipe, passed down to me from my mother, who got it from her grandmother. Boston's epithet of "Beantown" is a testament to the importance and long history of baked beans in the region, and my mother's family has lived in the North Shore of the Boston metro for generations. I did have to make some modifications to the recipe to make it vegan, as the original makes heavy use of salt pork. I also made it in my slow cooker instead of actually baking it in the oven.

A scanned copy of the original non-vegan recipe as it appears in my mom's recipe book.

Ingredients:
- 453 grams beans (I use Great Northern)
-5 C water (or really, enough water to cover dry beans)
-¼ C olive oil
-2 C veggie broth
-2 tsp mustard (yellow or dijon)
-1 onion, quartered and sliced
-¼ C molasses
-¼ C brown sugar
-2 Tbs sweet pickle juice
-1 tsp salt
-½ tsp liquid smoke

To make:
1. Soak the beans in water, covered, overnight.
2. The next day, drain the beans and add the olive oil to the bottom of the slow cooker. Add beans, broth, and all other ingredients. Cook on low, covered, for 6 hours.
3. Remove cover, cook another half hour. Let cool and serve or store.

Served with Veggie Dog and homemade purple kraut and homemade French bread toast.

Homemade Sauerkraut

Is that Lawrence of Arabia?? Naw dogg it's just some sauerkraut krauting.

Cabbage is a crop we're only going to be seeing more of in the coming weeks, and homemade sauerkraut is a great way to make a delicious garnish that will last forever (ok, maybe like 3 weeks) in your fridge. It is also a very fun and easy pickling recipe for anyone who is new to pickling and wants to start with something less challenging.

I've found my homemade sauerkraut is always crispier and more flavorful than anything available in the grocery store, and it is as cheap as cabbage as the only other ingredient is salt.

Remember to clean everything really well: knife, bowl, jars, shot glasses. This is a pretty risk-free pickling recipe but you can never be too careful.

Ingredients:
-1 head cabbage
-½ Tbs salt

To make:
1. Quarter and core the cabbage. Slice the leaves as thin as possible, saving the thick stem parts and setting them aside. Place the leaf slivers in a large bowl.

2. Sprinkle cabbage with salt. Stir with your hands, then begin to punch, crush, and squeeze the leaves of as much fluid as possible for about 5 minutes.

3. Transfer cabbage leaves to canning jar(s). Pour in the excess cabbage juice from the crushing and squeezing step. Place the cabbage stems over the top of the leaves.
4. Invert a shot glass and put on top of the cabbage stems. Press down on the glass as hard as necessary to submerge all of the leaves under liquid.

5. Cover the jar with a cloth. Secure with twine or elastic. Let sit for at least a week in a warm dark place. This is honestly up to you, you can smell it and check it out periodically, it won't hurt anything, I like about 2 weeks.
6. Once it is "done," strain the cabbage leaves, clean out your canning jars, and put the newly made kraut back in the jar. Save up to 3 weeks in your refrigerator!

Vegan Pastrami Reubens

Homemade Rye Bread with vegan pastrami, thousand island, and homemade purple sauerkraut.

Okay, okay, I know reubens are the cliche sandwich of the mock-meat vegan cooking world. But there's a reason: reubens are delicious, and it is easy to make a delicious vegan pastrami with my old pal vital wheat gluten. I'm sure you can get vegan thousand island dressing at like Whole Foods but it is also wicked easy to make your own with Vegannaise and a few other basic condiments. I will share that recipe on here as well as a "bonus!"

Served with Sweet & White Potato Salad

My biggest breakthrough with the pastrami was to steam it rather than bake it. The first time I made it I tried to bake it and it came out kind of hard and dry. Steaming, followed by a quick roasting, yields a moist and tender pastrami sausage with just a tiny bit of a rind. So good.

My big tip: when steaming, don't get distracted and let all the water in your pot boil off. I was making a loaf of rye bread at the same time that I made this and accidentally let the pot boil dry and almost had a real emergency situation on my hands. Jill gives me a hard time because I ALWAYS freaking do this whenever I am steaming anything. It is dangerous and can result in loss of cookware, so please, don't be like me, stay focused, and check the pot every so often to see if you need to add water.

Also: stay tuned, tomorrow I am sharing my recipe for homemade sauerkraut!

Ingredients:

1½ C Vital Wheat Gluten
¼ C Nutritional Yeast
¼ C Garbanzo Flour
2 tsp paprika
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cumin
½+ tsp black pepper
⅛ tsp chili powder
⅛ tsp allspice

¾ C veggie broth
4 Tbs tomato paste
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
½ tsp mustard

To make:
1. Get a covered pot of water boiling with a steamer or strainer inside.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients (the first block of ingredients) in a large bowl.

3. Mix together all wet ingredients in a small bowl.
4. Pour wet into dry, and mix well.
5. Knead the dough well for 1-2 minutes, until firm.

6. Roll the dough into a large log about 10 cm long. Wrap in tin foil like a Tootsie Roll.

7. Carefully place the wrapped pastrami log in the steaming apparatus. Steam for 40 min.

8. Pre-heat oven to broil. Place still-wrapped pastramis in oven on a sheet for 15 min, rolling over once.
9. Let cool. Slice paper thin and serve!

BONUS RECIPE: Kinda Do-It-Yourself 1000 Island

2 parts vegannaise
2 parts sweet pickle relish
1 part ketchup
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well. Spread liberally over rye bread. Add pastrami and sauerkraut. Chow down.

Camping Edition Fitness Friday: Baxter State Park

Baxter State Park is by far the largest state park in Maine, at over 8400 hectares. It is also perhaps the most primitive, in keeping with Governor Percival Baxter's wish that the park be kept "forever wild." Baxter State Park also has an interesting history. Percival Baxter worked throughout his life, from 1931 to 1962, using his personal wealth to secure parcels of land in Piscataquis County around Mount Katahdin, Maine's highest peak. He then gave this land to the people of Maine to be maintained as a wilderness area for public recreation.

What a great gift! The Forever Wild thing is taken pretty seriously: there is no electricity, running water, or paved roads in the park. Nature itself provides the most exciting forms of entertainment: swimming, hiking, running, or just playing cards under a backdrop of stunning mountain vistas.

On our first full day at Baxter, we opted to sleep in and hike local rather than make the drive to Katahdin and risk not getting a parking space. Our campground was right at the Doubletop Mountain trailhead, which conveniently enough proved to be a fun and exciting hike with some breathtaking views.

Maybe somewhere in the Easy end of the Moderate rating in terms of difficulty, the summit is 1063 meters above sea level and the trail we took was 5.3km one-way to hit both peaks. The narrow ridge connecting the two peaks is like a mini Knife's Edge, with 360 degree views but none of the scrambling anxiety (at least for me... I have a fear of heights).

North Peak looking to South Peak

A neat cloud formation as the clouds started to roll in.

On the descent. 

Another view from the top.

Paul spent only the first night with us, but fortunately helped out in setting up our canopy: we ended up needing it twice! That first day we played travel Scrabble underneath when the rain came in. I won, of course.

Paul also alerted our attention to moose on at least two occasions. A large female frequented our campground and Paul and I could not resist the photo op.

Next year we're bringing pancake mix!

And to close, some more pictures from the trail and summit on Sentinel.

The narrow wooden bridge continued for about a kilometer through a moss-covered marsh. 

Camping Edition: One Pot Pasta

Okay, so apologies in advance: no photos for this entry, but it was so perfect I just had to share. For our first night camping, we knew we wanted to have something with fresh vegetables  before our cooler ice melted. Jill and I had independently stumbled upon the concept of "One Pot Pasta and Sauce" and we just knew it would be perfect for camping.

This recipe was easy to prepare even in primitive camping conditions and did not take long at all. We ate well and even had left overs for pasta salad the next day! It could probably be amended to be even more camping friendly-- we're thinking canned tomatoes next time-- but I am sharing the recipe as we made it because it came out so good.

Ingredients:
-1 376 gram box of whole wheat pasta
- 12 or so cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 1 large onion, sliced
- several cloves fire-roasted garlic, chopped
- about 1 cup baby spinach leaves or roughly chopped spinach
- oregano
- basil
- salt
-pepper

In keeping with the camping theme, I am deliberately not including measurements on the spices because really, who brings measuring spoons camping? Okay, probably some people, but not me or anyone else I know.

To Make:
1. Fire roast your garlic! Put a whole garlic bulb on the grill over the campfire, not directly over the flame but close enough to get hot and singed. The outer layers of papery skin will get burned to black; this is fine. Let it roast, turning occasionally, for about 15 minutes.
2. Fill a fire-safe sauce pan with water. You can even use water from a non-potable source as long as it is flowing and you're in an area free of industrial contaminants. Boil the water, either over your camp stove or, like we did, right over a hot fire. Especially if using non-potable water be sure to bring it to a rolling boil for a few minutes before adding other ingredients.
3. Add tomatoes and onions to the boiling water. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add the spinach and garlic. Cook about 3 minutes more.
4. Add the pasta. Boil, uncovered, until the pasta is done, about 7 minutes.
5. Carefully pour out extra water until desired liquid level is achieved. Stir in oregano, basil, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve!