Mishmash

My sister and I went into Philadelphia yesterday because she wanted to visit the Tiffany's jewelry store. It was a short walk from where I parked my car - only a couple of blocks - but the sticky heat we've been experiencing here the last couple of days made the trip incredibly uncomfortable. I was wearing cut-off shorts and a tank top in an effort to keep cool, but I definitely felt like a bum walking into Tiffany's! If I ever go there again, I'll have to remember to fancy up a little bit. On the way back to the car, we stopped at Capogiro Gelato at 13th Street for a treat that would cool us down. While Capogiro had an impressive amount of delicious looking gelato, they were only serving a few fruit sorbets. I opted for half bing cherry and half black raspberry, and was NOT disappointed! I think this was probably the richest sorbet I've ever eaten, and the flavor of both fruits was wonderfully strong.




For dinner last night, I made a sort of Mediterranean stir-fry. First, I cut up a block of firm tofu into small cubes and tossed it with some salt, olive oil, and dried marjoram, and baked it at 450 degrees for about twenty minutes. Then, I sauteed the tofu with cremini mushrooms, sundried tomatos, spinach, garlic, and a little bit of white wine, and served it over bulgur wheat. It was something fun and different since I don't usually prepare tofu this way, and definitely very filling.



Finally, here is a shot of the mostly eaten cake I made for my sister's 18th birthday a couple of days ago. She wanted a funfetti cake (the kind of from the Pillsbury mix) but since I was the one doing the baking, I certainly wasn't going to make a cake I couldn't even eat, OR make a cake from a box mix. Instead I doubled the recipe for Golden Vanilla Cupcakes in VCTOTW and folded a ton of sprinkles into the batter. I frosted the cake with Isa's vanilla buttercream frosting, and it was a hit - my whole family loved this cake! Unfortunately, I never seem to have shortening on hand, so I always make my buttercreams entirely out of Earth Balance, which gives them a very soft texture that has to be refrigerated immedietly for fear of melting. That's alright though, the cake and icing still tasted so good!

Ehh.

I had some semi-exciting plans for dinner tonight that were thwarted because someone else used up my ingredients. I ended up making what seemed like a kind of weird combination of oven-roasted corn on the cob, oven fries, and spinach with chickpeas. It all turned out well enough, but the meal sort of felt like a washout.


Baby spinach sauteed with three cloves of garlic, some pinenuts, and about half a can of chickpeas. It ended up being more chickpeas than spinach, but still tasted good, meaning there were no leftovers.


Oven roasted potatos tossed with olive oil, salt, and Old Bay seasoning. They didn't turn out as crisp as I like, I think because the potatos I used were sort of waxy.


A vegan version of Orangette's chocolate chip cinnamon banana bread. This is probably the most delicious banana bread I have ever had; there is a cinnamon sugar topping that gets crunchy while the bread is baking that I think makes the recipe really stand out from others. Interestingly, while this bread contains no added fat, you would never be able to tell, most likely due to the moistness from the bananas. To veganize Orangette's bread, I just omit the eggs and replaced them with 1/2 cup of plain applesauce mixed with 1 teaspoon of baking powder.