Vegan kohlrabi and fennel gratin

inspired by this

1 c cashews
1-1.5 c hot broth
1 T earth balance
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
4 red potatoes, thinly sliced
3 small kohlrabi bulbs, peeled and thinly sliced
4 medium-small criminis, thinly sliced
~2/3 c leftover mushroom gravy (wasn't actually vegan but could have been)
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t tarragon
1/4 t nutmeg
generous grating of black pepper
toasted breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 375F. Combine cashews and broth in small bowl and let soak for a while. Get all the veggies sliced and ready to go. Melt the earth balance in a large pot and saute the onion and fennel, then add the other veggies and gravy and cook for a few minutes. Meanwhile, drain the cashews (reserving the broth) and grind until smooth in a food processor. Add the broth a little at a time, trying not to make the food processor spit liquid all over, until a desired creamy consistency is desired. Stir the cashew cream and spices into the veggies. Transfer to a greased 9" square pan. Bake for 20 min, sprinkle on the breadcrumbs, and bake for another 10-15 min until bubbly and the potatoes are done. While the gratin is baking, cook up the kohlrabi greens (washed, destemmed, and chopped) with some garlic, arugula, and pine nuts, and serve that on the side. First vegan cashew experiment: totally a success!

Multigrain Wolf bread

Named after Lester's mom's friend Wolfgang, in case you were wondering. In general, you can use >2 c of any nuts, seeds, or chunky grains you like, and another cup or more of your choice of brans and meals. Makes two soft hearty loaves.

2 c warm water
1 T yeast
1 t white sugar
1/2 T earth balance
2/3 c chopped walnuts
1 1/3 c cooked wheat berries
1 T brown sugar
1/2 c powdered milk
3/4 c wheat bran
3/4 c flaxseed meal
1 c wheat flour
2 t salt
3-3.5 c white flour
semolina for dusting

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Fry walnuts and wheat berries in earth balance and brown sugar for a couple minutes and let cool. Add the milk powder, wheat bran, flax meal, wheat flour, and salt into the water, and stir to make a smooth porridge. Stir the nuts and wheatberries into the porridge. Stir/knead in enough white flour to make a not-too-sticky dough and knead for a few minutes. Let rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled. Get out a baking sheet and dust it with semolina. Divide the dough in half, form each half into a ball, and place (well-separated) on the baking sheet. Cover and let rise. Preheat oven to 400F. Bake for 30-35 min on the bottom rack with a dish of water on the top rack, rotating halfway through.

Lemon curd blueberry bundt cake

based on this

cake:
2 sticks butter, softened
1 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 c (little less than 200 g) greek yogurt
4 eggs
1/4 c lemon curd
2.5 c self-rising flour
1 c blueberries

streusel:
2-4 T shortening
1 t cardamom
1/4-1/3 c flour
2 T turbinado

topping:
3/4 c whipping cream
2 T lemon curd
sugar to taste

Butter a bundt pan and preheat oven to 325F. Beat the wet ingredients together in the kitchenaid, then mix in the flour in three additions. Rub the streusel ingredients together until crumbly. Scoop half the batter into the pan, sprinkle with the blueberries, scoop the other half of the batter over that, and sprinkle the streusel on top. Bake for 1h10m until tester comes out clean and top is golden. Cool in pan for half an hour, then invert onto a cooling rack. If it's bedtime, cover cake+rack loosely with foil and let finish cooling overnight. In the morning, whip the cream, stir in the lemon curd and sugar, and whip until stiff peaks form. Have a bit of cake for breakfast, then bring half the loaf into work and serve slices topped with cream during simulation club.

Veggie pot pie

enough of your favorite pie crust recipe to cover the tops of two 9" pies
5 red potatoes, quartered
3 veggie sausages, sliced
3 T flour
3 T butter
2 c broth

1 onion, chopped
1 leek, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise, then sliced crosswise
4 large crimini, minced
1/2 bunch kale, chopped
1 apple, peeled and grated
1 t each or to taste: salt, pepper, sage, marjoram

Preheat oven to 425F (or the temperature recommended by your crust recipe) and grease two 9" pie pans. Take care of some preliminaries: make the pie crust, boil the potatoes until tender but not disintegrating, brown the sausage, and make the gravy by cooking together the flour, butter, and broth. Cube the potatoes when they're done.

In a large pot, saute onion, leek, and garlic in some oil. Add carrot, mushrooms, and kale, and cook until tender. Stir in the potatoes, sausage, apple, spices, and gravy. Divide between your pie pans and cover with crust. Bake until the crust is browned (maybe half an hour? no idea how long this actually took). Let cool for a couple minutes, and serve six folks with a side dish.

Lemon curd

1.5 times this

3/4 c lemon juice (from my backyard)
3/4 c sugar
4 eggs + 1 yolk
9 T butter (just a touch more than a stick) cut into pieces

Whisk everything together in a saucepan. Keep whisking over medium-low heat until it thickens, about 12 min. Pour into a bowl and put in the fridge for at least an hour. Use with cupcakes and bundt cake, and especially good just stirred into some whipped cream.

Donut hole cupcakes

pretty much this

3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1/4 c canola
3/4 c milk
1 t vanilla
1.5 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 t each nutmeg and cardamom
1 T melted butter
sugar on a plate

Preheat oven to 350F and butter pans for at least 6 regular-sized cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes (original recipe claims to make 12 cupcakes, but I had even more batter than fit in those pans). Cream together sugar and egg, then stir in the rest of the wet ingredients (oil, milk, vanilla). Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, spices) and stir into the batter. Fill cupcake tins and bake: 17 min for regular cupcakes, 12 min for minis. Brush tops with butter, loosen from pans, roll in sugar, and cool on a cooling rack. Extra tasty filled with lemon curd and topped with a blueberry!

Mexican-ish polenta casserole

1.5 c polenta
3.75 c water
2 sweet potatoes, sliced
1 pack soy chorizo
1 onion, chopped
1 can black beans, drained and washed
2 red peppers, chopped
juice from 1/2 a small lime
10 oz monterey jack, grated
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450F and spray-grease a 9x13" pan. Start cooking the polenta in the water (stirring often so it doesn't stick), and start boiling the sweet potato slices (checking to see when they're done). Saute the onion and chorizo together, then add the beans and red pepper and half the lime juice, and cook for a bit. When the polenta is done, stir in half the cheese and some pepper, and spread in the bottom of the pan. Spread the protein-veggie stuff over the polenta, then layer the sweet potato slices on top of that. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and lime, then sprinkle on the rest of the cheese. Bake uncovered for 20-25 min until the cheese is bubbly and browning. Serve at Yael's post-mini-stat-mech potluck.

Lemon spice gingerbread

based on Wes's recipe, with lots of additions including Christina's lemon marmalade

2 c flour
2 T sugar
4 cubes crystallized ginger, minced
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
1/2 t cardamom
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t salt
1 c molasses
2 T lemon marmalade
1 c boiling water
1/3 c oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 325F. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine molasses, marmalade, and water in a 2 c pyrex, and stir into the dry ingredients. Combine oil and egg in the pyrex, and stir into the batter. Pour into a buttered+floured 9" square pan and bake for 45 min or until a tester comes out clean while we have some tea and figure out how to make Lester presentable for the conference. Let cool enough to carry into work, and feed to folks between Mini Stat Mech chores.

Roasted eggplant and garlic soup

based on this
the head of garlic adds so much flavor that the dumplings are a bit superfluous, I would skip them next time or just use the filling as a spread for a baguette

2 large eggplants
1 head garlic
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
1 leek, white parts chopped
1 russet potato, chopped
1/2 c white wine
3 cubes not-chicken broth in 5 c hot water
salt and pepper
3/4 c milk

3 shallots, minced
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/4 c chopped basil (4 sprigs)
4 oz chevre
24 wonton wrappers (~3" square)

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with spray grease. Slice eggplants in half and place cut-side-down on the baking sheet. Also slice the top off the head of garlic to expose most of the cloves, wrap foil around the bottom, pour on some olive oil to coat the exposed cloves, and pinch the foil closed around the top. Put the eggplant and garlic in the oven and roast for an hour (take out the garlic sooner if it browns too much). Let cool, then scoop out all the innards.

Meanwhile, chop all the veggies. Make the dumpling filling by sauteing the shallots and mixing with the tomatoes, basil, and chevre.

In a large pot, saute the onion, leek, fennel, and potato in some olive oil until they start to soften. Add the wine and simmer until the wine evaporates. Add the broth and simmer until all the veggies are cooked through and blendable. Add the eggplant and garlic, and simmer for another few minutes.

Make the dumplings by placing a little spoonful of filling in the center of each wonton wrapper, brushing all four edges with water with your fingertips, pinching two diagonally-opposite corners together, and pinching along the edges to seal. Place on wax paper while you make the rest. Boil for 1 min in small batches, transferring to a flat surface with a slotted spoon when each batch is done (they'll stick if they're touching!).

Add the milk, salt, and pepper to the soup, and blend. Serve soup with a few dumplings placed on top, with baguette+chevre and wine.

Jill's rice and egg casserole

based on one of the many delicious things on Jill's recipe blog!

1.5 c leftover barely-seasoned rice
2 Tofurky kielbasa sausages, sliced
several leaves kale, chopped
2 small portabellos, sliced
3 green onions, whites and greens chopped
4 eggs
1/4 c milk
1-2 T finely grated Toscano (or more if you hadn't eaten too much cheese yesterday)
1 t each cumin and paprika
salt and pepper

Spray grease a pie pan and spread rice around the bottom. Saute in turn sausage (until browned), kale (until wilted), and mushrooms (until cooked) and layer in turn on top of the rice. Sprinkle with green onions. Beat together the rest of the ingredients with a fork and pour over the top. Bake at 350F for 30-35 min. Serve with a leftover enchilada or two from yesterday.

Mujadarra

2 onions, thinly sliced
2 T olive oil
2 c cooked brown rice
2 c cooked brown lentils
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t cumin
salt

If you don't have leftover rice and lentils sitting around, start cooking some first (in separate pots). Caramelize onions in oil over medium-low heat for almost an hour, until very brown and getting crispy. Combine everything in a bowl and season to taste. Serve with veggies, pitas, hummus, and yogurt.

Lemony kale and cauliflower

2.5 c chopped kale
1/2 head cauliflower, broken into small florets
1/2 c pine nuts
1.5 T lemon juice
several T water
1/4 t each salt and chili powder

Saute kale and cauliflower in a pan that's just been used to caramelize onions for a few minutes. Add pine nuts and cook a bit longer. Add lemon juice and a little water and cover so the cauliflower can steam to finish cooking. Check regularly and add more water as needed. Season and serve with mujadarra, pitas, hummus, and yogurt.

Pitas

makes 6, from The Food of Israel

1.5 t yeast
1 t sugar
1.5 c warm water
~3.5 c flour (recipe calls for less but I needed at least that much to make a dough)
1.5 t salt

Combine ingredients (starting with 2.5 c flour and adding more as needed) and knead to make a slightly sticky dough. Cover and let rise until doubled. Preheat oven to 450F. Divide dough into 6 balls, press into rounds on a floured surface, and place on floured baking sheets (3 to a sheet). Bake for 9 minutes; they will puff up! Serve with mujadarra, veggies, hummus, and yogurt.