Molasses Cookies

light and fluffy with a little spice

First off- Blackstrap Molasses. If you don't already have some stocked in your kitchen you should get some (preferably unsulphared organic). Molasses is a healthy sweetener jam packed with copper, manganese, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Read more nutrition information here.

These cookies are a nice contrast to the chocolatey sweets I've been eating lately, think of them as the healthier cousin of a ginger snap.

makes 30 cookies:
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
4 T virgin coconut oil
1 C sugar
2 C unbleached white flour, sifted
1/2 t salt
2 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground all spice
2 t ground ginger
1 large egg
1/4 C molasses
1 t baking soda
various colored decorating sugars

In a large bowl beat butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy (if you don't have coconut oil, use 3/4C butter total). Add all other ingredients except decorating sugars until well combined. Refrigerate cookie dough until firm enough to handle (about 1-2 hours). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper and put decorating sugars in a bowl. Roll cookie dough into 1" balls and roll in sugar. Place about 2" apart on cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Enjoy!

...and here's some random sticky food trivia- did you know that in The Great Molasses Flood that occurred in 1919, a large molasses tank holding 2 million gallons of this sweetener broke causing a massive thirty foot tidal wave to flood the streets of Boston? Twenty one people supposedly died along with extensive property damage throughout the city!

Chili con Soy & TVP

I was craving chili lately, pretty perfect for this cold weather...a nice big bowl with an oozy layer of queso on top- yum! I decided to try making a pot one night after work with a quicker recipe, something that wouldn't require a crock pot (I don't have one). This would work with whatever you have on hand to throw in really, make some corn bread to go on the side! While my corn bread was baking in the oven I made the chili.

Ingredients:
1 green pepper, chopped
1 C frozen corn
1/2 medium-large sized onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
salt & pepper, freshly ground to taste
8 oz soy protein
1 C TVP (textured vegetable protein)
8 oz can of black beans
2 T cumin
2 T tumeric
2 t red pepper flakes
2 t chipotle powder
1 T tamari
2 bay leaves
(1) 28 oz can + (1) 15 oz can of peeled plum tomatoes or crushed tomatoes
serves about 6

In a medium sized pot saute veggies with onion and garlic, about 5 minutes, do not cook green peppers all the way through. Season with salt and pepper. Add the soy protein and break apart while mixing with all other ingredients, add in TVP and continue stirring until soy protein has browned slightly and broken apart (similar to ground beef). Pour in the can of black beans with liquid and add all remainder ingredients. Add the tomatoes first and then pour liquid in to your desired consistency- thicker or soupy. Cook over medium/high heat for 10-15 minutes until liquid has cooked off slightly. Serve with sharp cheddar cheese on top!

Dojo Carrot Ginger Dressing- Part I

Carrot Ginger dressing is one of my faves, I could drink this stuff! It goes perfectly with rice, salads, burgers- whatever! I ate it here with grilled tempeh and sauteed spinach and watercress.

Whenever I go to Dojo's, I always order extra dressing (probably like everyone else out there). There weren't too many recipes online that seemed to replicate it. Here is my first pass- a little on the thick side, but still really tasty:

makes 1 cup
2 small/medium carrots
3 T rice vinegar
3 T tamari
1 T toasted sesame oil
1 T fresh grated ginger
1/4 slab of tofu mashed

Blend all ingredients. Other recipes call for Mirin (which I didn't have stocked on my shelf) or Tahini which could be tasty too.

In The News

I don't eat fish, but supposedly if you want to buy sustainable fish, Trader Joe's is the worst place to buy it. Today on Bitten, a story covers a test Greenpeace created to determine whether supermarket chains sell sustainable fish- check it out here.

Also while you're there read an interesting perspective given by Nicholas Kristof, on agriculture in America and a call to President-elect Obama to select a reformist for agriculture secretary. Lots of good stuff!

Clementine

Although I love Fall, Winter is wonderful because a lot of my favorite foods are in season like Brussels Sprouts and Clementine. While at our local grocery store the other day, a box of Clementine were on sale for about $4! I don’t typically like buying bulk packaged produce since I like hand picking everything but Clementine always seem to come in those little wooden boxes. To make a long story short, some of them were just plain bad- moldy and lacking in sweetness and watered down. How do you pick the right one? (Something I am still learning with all produce)….

So I read over at Produce Pete a simple rule of thumb: Whatever the variety, Oranges and all citrus fruit should be heavy in the hand for its size, look for shininess, check the scent (should smell sweet), and for most varieties the rind should never feel puffed like there is any space between the rind and flesh (this is what some of our Clementine were like). There should be no spotting, no signs of shriveling, and no white patches.

Did you know that Clementine were only first brought to the US in 1982? Read more here about Clementine and their history!

Also, today at cookthink, an interesting blurb on
Why We Buy Food We Never Use

Borscht- any recommendations?

Although Cabbage is composed with 90% water, this Winter veggie is still high in vitamins A and C, calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

Truth be told, I've only had 'real' Borscht once in my life. Sure, I've had a variety of cabbage-ey soups my parents made growing up. But Borscht, I tried at Uncle Vanya's. It was such an occasion, I've been planning to test a vegetarian/vegan borscht for a while!

While researching different soup recipes, I came across several that were heavily beet based, others that were not. I opted to lean towards more of a cabbage base with some hint of beet so that the final product wasn't a total beet-fest but just enough to add flavor. (no offense, I do like beets and everything...)



The final result was O-K, I am still working on it. I referenced these recipes. The soup broth was a little too sweet and needs to be worked out a little more, and I would like to eliminate the beet out of this recipe all together.

Note to self: make smaller test batch recipes (still learning that one). Now I am left with a BIG pot of soup at home and Matt hate's Cabbage and Beets, would anyone like some Borscht?

What I Made for a Holiday Party

I don't know about everyone, but Thanksgiving totally drained me. Cooking for 14 people was so exhausting, after it was over all I wanted to do was NOT cook. It was great though.

I am getting ready to work on a new recipe soon for a Vegan or Vegetarian Borscht- did I mention that I LOVE borscht? It seems like a great way to incorporate seasonal veggies and warm up in this cold weather....

In the meantime, I went to a Holiday party recently and tried making something new. Matt's coworker had brought in these cake balls. What are cake balls anyway?! After hearing rave reviews I took a look at Bakerella's site which shows sooo many different fun variations on this concept. I gave it a try....simple enough, after all, it's just crumbled cake mixed with frosting:


For the first test batch I stuck with classic yellow cake with vanilla frosting- homemade! No partially hydrogenated oil trans fattiness box mix crap here.
One 9" layer of cake + 8 oz. frosting made nearly 65 cake balls.


Since the cake mixture was sweet enough on its own, a dark chocolate seemed like a nice compliment. We had some Newman O's on hand and decided to sprinkle some crushed ones on top of a few of them for a nice added texture.



Stick these in the freezer for a cookie dough effect.

Next I want to try a Peanut Butter Cake + Peanut Butter frosting mixture dipped in dark dark chocolate.....mmmmmmmm!