Friday, October 10, 2008

Happy Baracktober!

Hahahahaha! I'm now going to be referring to October as "Baracktober," hope you guys don't mind. ;) Anyway, I've been a little under the weather for the last week. I have a nasty chest cold, and even had a fever for a couple of days. I hadn't had a fever for like ten years! The fever seems to be gone now, but I've got a really nasty-sounding cough that just won't let up. I swear, it looks as if I haven't been doing much cooking in the last week and a half. I have, though. I guess I forgot to take pics, and now I can't even remember what I've made!

So, we're heading off to Canaan Valley this afternoon. Seems as if it's becoming a tradition to celebrate my birthday that way. I love, love, love Canaan Valley so I hope it's a tradition that will continue. I made myself a b-day cake. Gingerbread with a lemon glaze. I used the gingerbread cupcake recipe from The PPK. I multiplied it by 1.5, but probably should've doubled it for a taller cake (I did a bundt cake and baked it at 350 for about 45 min. Don't forget to grease and flour the pan!). I didn't want to frost it, so I used this recipe from Giada DeLaurentis for the glaze.


Last week at some point I made the Pumpkin Baked Ziti from V-con. It was quite tasty. To go with it I made a variation of my old honey-baked lentils. I subbed maple syrup for the honey and also added a chopped carrot. I use red lentils for this, and it has a nice, mush consistency. LOL Really, I think the consistency is great for this particular dish.



This week I wanted to use up the last of my frozen black beans, so I did the Black Beans with Chipotle Sauce from V-con. I tried my hand a vegan cornbread (Skillet Cornbread from V-con), and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. Just to make sure I went overboard on chipotles, I made some chipotle-glazed green beans. So easy. Just brown up a chopped onion in a skillet, add fresh green beans and cook until they're almost done. Then add the glaze, which is a little brown sugar, a chopped chipotle, a little scoop of the adobo sauce from the canned chipotles, and a splash of water. Turn up the heat before adding so it gets nice and sticky. YUM!

11 comments:

carrie said...

Happy Birthday DM...when is the actual date?? Rob's was the 7th, and mine is in 3 weeks, yay for fall birthdays!!

I love that picture of Barack, it's one of my faves, but I like the one that says HOPE at the bottom. I think it sums it up nicely. I know the economy is in the toilet, and we are in 2 wars no one wants to be in, but for me HOPE trumps all else in this election. Hope that my kids might get to grow up in a world where people actual care for one another, and where we have leaders that demonstrate that!!

Your food looks yummy too. I'm going to have to try that cake for my birthday maybe!!

Susan Chipley said...

Mine's the 12th. I'll let you know how the cake is. It's weird posting about something before I've even tried it!

carrie said...

Dying to know how the cake was!!!

Susan Chipley said...

The cake was awesome! It was so, so moist. It would be good without glaze/icing as well. It would be really good with a buttercream frosting too.

Anonymous said...

Baracktober! I love it!

And ditto what Carrie said. I just made a T-shirt that says hope > fear. That pretty much sums up this election. Barack's platform and campaign have all been about hope, while the Reps are stirring up racism and fear. I'm so over all the hate! But it gives me hope for this country that Obama is in the lead. Let's hope he gets enough electoral votes so we don't have another 2000!

Anonymous said...

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D

moneytastesbad said...

Hey DM, Long time no see.

Anyway, sorry to hijack your blog, but I wanted to let you and Sleek know about a new message board thingy that you and maybe your readers would be interested in. It is called Straight Outta Appalachia, and it covers damn near everything. I am not kidding. There are almost 100 forums covering everything from politics to sports to TV to Music to Food and (my favorite) Beer. There is even a Forum dedicated to Vegie Cooking and Recipies. It dosen't have any posts yet, but it is there.

It is just getting up and running, but I would love to have some fellow Morgantownies on board (ha ha, get it, on BOARD, it is a message BOARD). I know that at least one of your readers is already a registered member. So come on over and check it out.

Straight Outta Appalacia

carrie said...

Dalai Mama - I missed all of your Christms baking this year.....I hope you and your family had a great holiday season and that we'll see you back on the blogs soon!!!

Susan Chipley said...

Hey, Carrie! I need to get back to blogging for sure. Life got in the way there for a while, and I felt like I barely had time to sit down at the computer. I didn't go all out on the baking like I did last year, but I did make some super-fantastic vegan cookies. I took pics, planning to post them. I'll get around to it. The kids are both really sick. Julian has a staph infection that may be MRSA, but it should be easily treatable with strong antibiotics (he's never even taken antibiotics before). Annelies is also on antibiotics for the first time with strep throat and an extremely painful swollen lymph node in her neck. So, for now I'm running an infirmary.

I'll get back to blogging, though. :)

The Heretic said...

Looks like you've been taking some time off of the blogging thing too! I just posted a new one for the first time in six months. How are things?

Susan Chipley said...

Hey, Heretic! Yep. Life has gotten in the way of blogging. I'm aiming to make a comback, though. We're good here. Freezing cold, but good. :)