Crazy, that is. Life around her has been insane the last few months. So cooking has been unexciting as I haven't actually has time. We've has some tragedies, we've had some school issues, and some work issues. So I'm actually starting to get used to crazy. And the holiday's are about to start. Can't forget about that, not with the Christmas music on the local radio station for the last two weeks and decorations going up around the neighborhood.
I really do love the holidays, for me it's all about food... and the end of finals!!! I go all out for the holidays. My work had an early thanksgiving this last Thursday. The provide the Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans and the rest is potluck. Normally vegans cringe at work meals, for good reason. And the food provided for this meal is the cherry on top, the only thing Veg friendly were the green beans... I think they were canned. EWWW. But I have the most amazing friends and some really awesome coworkers. One other coworker is vegan and she brought her version of Tofurky, it was like eating the best stuffing ever! Quite a few people brought food that two "weirdos" could eat. I brought two dishes, one that I love (and have no pictures of) and a new dish that a friends found the recipe for Tofu Chocolate Cheesecake. OMG, it's so good the vore's didn't know it was vegan!!!!
My usual standby for potlucks is a main for anyone that doesn't eat meat, or a good side for those that do. It's Balsamic glazed oven roasted Veg with
Gnocci. It's
always a hit and really really easy to make. The cheesecake came from the know defunct
Epicurious magazine. Oh how I'm going to miss them! My friend found it when she was waiting for her hair to process at our stylists.
Good things really do happen at the salon!!! Keep trying to convince the
Vore of that, and know I think I have!
Balsamic-glazed Veg and Gnocci
2 med onion
1 zucchini
2 pints grape of cherry tomatoes
1 head of garlic
1/2 lb mushrooms, I use portabella
1 sprig fresh rosemary or 1t italian seasoning
3 T good Balsamic vinegar
3T oil, I have used both corn oil and olive oil
1 package Gnocci
Cut all of the vegetables ( except for the garlic, tomatoes and mushrooms depending on their size) into large chunks. Peel the garlic cloves. Put all of the veg into a large roasting pan, add the oil and vinegar, stir until everything i coated evenly, add the rosemary. Cook @ 375f for 1-1.5 hrs or until the hard vegetables are cooked through and the tomatoes start to look wrinkled.
Heat salted water on the stove top until boiling. Add the gnocci, they are done once they start floating. This will take about 5-10min. Add the gnocci to the roasted veg for the last 15 min of baking.
Salt and pepper to taste.
**I've made this many times and every time I use a different mix of vegetables, but I always include the garlic tomatoes and onion.
Here is the cheesecake recipe direct from the epicurious website. I don't know if it will be there much monger and this must be shared!!! I made one small change, mostly to do poor planning, but that made it amazing. I used 4oz of 60% cocoa and 4oz of raspberry dark chocolate swirl chips. I didn't look at the weight of the chocolate bar until after I started cooking. Luckily I had the raspberry chips leftover from another experiment. I also used Vegan chocolate cookies for the crust.
Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake
For graham cracker crust:
1 1/4 cups chocolate or regular graham cracker crumbs (from nine 5-by 2 1/2-inch graham crackers)
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons Earth Balance vegan buttery spread, melted and cooled, plus additional for greasing pan For chocolate tofu filling:
2 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/3 cup water
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao), chopped
2 (1-pound packages silken tofu, drained
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
2 (8-ounces) containers soy cream cheese at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt
Equipment: a 9-inch
springform pan
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Preparation
Make graham cracker crust: Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in middle and lower third and put a baking sheet on lower rack. Flip bottom of
springform pan so lip is facing down, then lock in place. Grease bottom and side of pan.
Stir together all crust ingredients, then press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of pan. Bake until set, 10 to 12 minutes, then cool completely, about 45 minutes.
Make chocolate tofu filling:Heat 1 cup sugar in a 1 1/2-to 2-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling pan occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber. Remove from heat and carefully stir in water (mixture will bubble up and steam and caramel will harden), then cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until caramel has dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in chopped chocolate until smooth. Cool fudge sauce slightly.
Purée tofu and cocoa in a food processor until smooth.
Beat soy cream cheese and remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until fluffy. At low speed, beat in tofu
purée, vanilla, salt, and fudge sauce until incorporated.
Pour filling into crust and bake on middle rack until top of cake is shiny but center is still slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour. Turn oven off and leave cake in oven 1 hour more.
Run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen, then cool completely in pan on rack (cake will continue to set as it cools). Chill cake, loosely covered, at least 6 hours. Remove side of pan and transfer cake to a plate. Bring to room temperature before serving if desired.
Cooks's note: Cheesecake can be made 3 days ahead and chilled.
