No Theme Thursday

Here's our front porch, all dressed up to showcase the brussel sprouts on the stalk we got at the grocery store. So exciting! Watch for the brussel sprouts to reappear later in this post. But dessert first, right?

These are the Nanaimo Bars.... and the recipe calls for nuts. Any one how knows me, knows that I am a long time nut hater. But I've been trying and actually enjoying some of them lately. Like in the Caesar Salad dressing from Veganomion and in a few other recipes. I'm working on it. Well, in this recipe, the nuts are ground and completely disappear and you're left with these incredibly rich, delicious and elegant bars. I made a batch to take to our nephew's birthday yesterday and everyone enjoyed them. Their previous exposure to vegan cookies were the Bakery Style Chocolate Chip cookies which were also well-received.

Fun fact: Nanaimo Bars may have originated in Canada when a housewife in the 1950's created and submitted a recipe for a magazine contest. Or maybe not. Supposedly something similar existed in NYC in the 30's under a different name: "New York Slices". Or maybe not. There are also references to something similar back in the 1800's. But no matter what the origin, I wiki'ed that so you didn't have to do it yourself.

My sister is rather unpleasant about the whole vegan thing and really pisses me off. She made Baked Alaska for his birthday cake and informed me that she only made a small one because we weren't eating it. Guess she wasn't counting the fact that she'd made TWO and put one in the freezer and the one that she served would have worked for 12 people. Geez, I'm so sorry to put her out. I can hardly wait for Thanksgiving with them. Anyway....

This is a Weirdwich. No other possible name. It's chickeny seitan, leftover reuben marinade (yesterday's lunch) and portobellos all cooked and tossed with a bit of nayonnaise and some spices. It tasted better than it sounds, but was really weird.



And that Salt and Pepper Tofu that was inadvertently left out of Veganomicon. I've made it before, but my husband would like it if I made it every day. Not happening. It's good enough to eat that often, with so many new recipes popping up all the time, who wants boundaries?



I resorted to another standby this week, too: BBQ seitan. One of my old favorites... here it is paired with a new favorite, the Mac Daddy in it's unadulterated form. Yummy.

After rereading this post, it's kinda a No Theme Thursday.