Friday, March 24, 2006

Last Night's Dinner

No pictures, as we were enjoying it too much. :-) And our camera's been acting up.

I just bought the Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak. I'd read on Vegan Lunchbox about making a vegan "cheese" fondue, and was having a hankering to try it. (I'd forgotten that Jennifer posted a recipe there....) I used the Traditional Fondue recipe from the Uncheese Cookbook and served it with bread cubes, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, chunks of fried tofurkey and boiled cubes of firm tofu. I really liked it! It truly smelled like cheese fondue and tasted very similar. Paul liked it but thought the yeast flavor was a bit too much. Alas, neither of the kids have ever been cheese fondue fans (even when Hibi wasn't a vegan) and mostly ate the dippers, not the cheez. Which means there's plenty of dip left for lunch today. :-)

Then on to dessert. Before Lent, when we went to YaHalla with Fr. Alban and Khouria Krista who we met at seminary and are now blessed to live in the same neighborhood with, Krista and I went over to the little market next door. I love looking through those places, and mostly I can say "oh, that looks interesting" and resist the urge to buy anything except what I know I'll use in recipes. But the big sheet of dried apricot paste caught my eye and I bought it and told myself I had to find a use for it. So, I put my thinker to work. I thought, puff pastry. But it needs something more....I'd never used almond paste (marzipan) but I thought that would be just the thing to make it a bit creamy. So, I did it. Well, turns out almond paste is not creamy, really, but it did taste good. It just didn't quite turn out how I'd imagined. Actually it was the apricot that hardened and became quite chewy. I think maybe next time I'd puree it with a bit of water or rice milk. I have to do something with the rest of this apricot paste! I'll be doing some experimenting.

I was also reminded of a drink we used to make--my mom used to make it for us, then we used to have it during Lent especially because you can substitute soy or rice milk for cow's milk and it's delicious. It's Orange Julius and you can find a recipe here. Yesterday when I did my shopping I bought frozen orange juice concentrate so I can make it. Now I just have to find my blender lid, which apparently got put away in the wrong place by one of my wonderful helpers. :-)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try making the Date Pop'Ems recipe that Jennifer has posted (click on the March link) on Vegan LunchBox. You can use the apricot paste instead of the dates...it would be so good!!!

Anonymous said...

Blast. I just posted this comment, and Blogger ate it. Try #2.

The apricot paste you found is found EVERYWHERE in the Middle East, especially during Ramadan. It's called mishmish amadine (amardine? something like that) - mishmish means apricot.

It's actually used as a beverage. They dissove the paste in hot water, and then adjust the strength with more water. We just liked to eat it out of the package, though. If you dissolved it, it would probably be good in those smoothies you make.

Mimi said...

Enjoy the Orange Julius! Yum, that takes me back.

We made a Greek dish for our Greek dinner (that got cancelled) that was apricot paste on a dough pressed into a pan, with dough laced on the top and then cooked. I am sure you could adapt that for the Fast.

Although, Arielle's idea sounds good too.

Susan said...

What you are talking about MiMi is Pasta Flora. Is is one of my families favorites. We make at Chritmas. It has become one of Christinas specialities.
This Christmas Maria at all the filling (she used blackberry), out of the middle of the pieces. We have a really cute picture:O)

Elizabeth said...

Thanks for all the great ideas, everyone! I'll let you know when I try some of them out.