yeesh.

i didn't forget you, blog, i swear. i've just been busy cooking.

what's the point?

so i initially started this blog to talk about food, a minor obsession of mine (some would say major obsession; my students from last semester would say it's all corn, all the time). i've been writing a lot about cooking, not really food politics. and now that i've been baking for the housing works for a while now, i've noticed some things.

• i don't get paid enough to make everything organically. the organization hasn't asked me to make everything using organic products, but i really want to do so. isn't that what we should be eating?
• eggs that are NOT free-range or organic or from pasture-fed chickens come in styrofoam packages. if i chose any or all of those options, i would be losing money on the goods i make just from the eggs alone. the "regular" brown eggs come a recyclable container. why not the others? and why are the brown eggs 30 cents more? is it the container? i spend extra so that the container is recyclable but the dilemma in the egg case at the store is maddening. am i the only one who over-thinks this issue?
  
• milk is another story. i buy organic valley milk. it's so good, and i don't even especially like milk. it's seemingly obscenely expensive, but the gross sorta-pasteurized regular kind doesn't last. i never even finish the carton, and buying the small bottles makes it almost as expensive as buying the organic ones. no one wants bovine growth hormone and utter pus in their milk. anyhow, i love organic valley. their soy products and their dairy products are outstanding (i wrote them a letter last year to tell them so, and they even wrote back); they are a farmer-owned coop; their farming methods are so sustainable that they won an award for them. they really have all the characteristics that i want in a company. and a milk product. i guess that one is non-negotiable for me.
  
• to that end, what's the point? if EVERY product that you put into a cookie is not organic, sustainable, pasture-fed, et cetera, then does it matter? don't you still end up eating things that you don't want in your body? does it matter at all that i over-analyze the dairy case? is it a waste of time? and what about flour? i like the unbleached flour by heckers, but it's rarely on-sale, and therefore, too expensive. does it all have to be enriched flour? can't i just get some grains in a bag? and, is it just insanity that i have two bottles of vanilla extract at home? one for the housing works (mccormick)? and one for us (organic)?
  
• i can't help but read the labels. you have to do so. it's crazy not to, isn't it? there are scary things out there, and they are in the food! (best examples: high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated anything). and what the hell are "natural flavors?" just tell me the flavor; i'll be ok. really, i will.
  

yes, the ignorance was so much easier.

carrot cakes.

i often bake treats for people's birthdays. my friend, dominic, likes donuts. some years ago, he asked if his birthday cakes could be in the same shape. i was already planning to make carrot cake for his birthday, so i made small ones. in the shape of donuts. sort of.

they were quite good. i can't remember which recipe i used, but probably one that has nuts, and not pineapple. i am unsure why so many carrot cake recipes use pineapple, but it just doesn't seem necessary.

oh my god. the turkey.

i made a turkey on thanksgiving. i've been vegetarian for years. more than half my life.

but, i was hosting thanksgiving at my house and i thought i should make a turkey. it was free-range and organic and expensive. i am surprised at how easy it was to make. and, i carved it myself. mostly with my hands. people liked it. incredible.

i don't plan to post the whole recipe, but mostly i stuffed it with fresh rosemary and thyme, cooked it for about 3 hours, and eventually basted it with some butter.

i forgot to tell you about the vegan cupcakes.

so, i promised i would blog about the vegan cupcakes. i was making them for my friend, caroline's birthday. i don't really know much about vegan baking. in my experience, it's more difficult than cooking, because you need to use things like egg replacer and vegan margarine, and, well, these foods are not necessarily what i want to be using. or eating. the problem with a lot of vegan products is the enormous amount of weird, processed stuff used to make them seem like the original version. i could figure out what sodium carboxymethylcellulose is, but i would rather just use something else.

i found an awesome vegan cupcake recipe online, of course. it's from a cookbook called vegan cupcakes take over the world. they were so very tasty, and easy to make. i bet there are other incredible recipes in the book. there's also an icing recipe on the site, too, but april was my baking partner on this project, so she made the icing. it was beautiful. very fluffy. nothing gave the hint that they were vegan; that's pretty amazing. (maybe she'll respond to this post with her recipe. hint. hint.)

i can't take credit for this recipe. go here: http://www.chow.com/recipes/10794

maybe it's because i am from texas.

i grew up eating tortilla soup. i love it. i had never made it before when my mom emailed me a recipe that she thought sounded good, and so i made it. it was good, and easy. of course, i doctored it up a bit, and made it spicier. it seems everything needs to be spicier.

1. cook about 3 cups of sliced, or diced, onions in oil until they are soft. add some cumin and oregano and garlic and cook some more.
2. add approximately 1 quart of broth. (i made broth from vegan vegetable bouillon. it's not made with any weird ingredients and you can keep it in the house for broth emergencies, whatever that might mean...) also add 28 oz of canned, diced tomatoes and chopped pepper (i can't remember if we used jalapeno or serrano, but use something with a kick.) reduce heat and cook for about 10 minutes.
3. crush about 3 handfuls of tortilla chips. do it in your hands; it doesn't have to be perfect. then, put them in the blender and pulverize them.
4. take a big scoop of soup (use the ladle) and put it into the blender and mix it with the chips, slow speed. maybe add a little extra soup so that it's not so thick. pour the mixture back into the soup. mix it up.

it's good. we put some cheese on top, probably monterey jack. i think this soup would be even better if we cooked it with some fresh sweet corn, too, but, it's winter and it's not really around. next time, i guess.

already february.

so, i haven't forgotten the blog. it's just that i've been busy. i'll be back soon enough to talk about tortilla soup, vegan cupcakes, and some other goodies. AND super tuesday. i am so excited about voting tomorrow, i think i am going to burst! almost like the first time. but right now, it's time for bed. it's past my bedtime.